Das epidemische Auftreten der Diphtherie in seiner Abhängigkeit von Boden und Klima, im besonderen von den Brücknerschen Klimaschwankungen

The Types Mitis, Intermedius and Gravis of Corynebacterium Diphtheriae

“…The picture of diptheria, as revealed by the study of type distribution, suggests therefore three closely allied conditions controlled to varying degrees by oscillations of mass immunity in the community, which are not synchronous in different areas; and possibly on all this there may be superimposed long-period cycles of change in the incidence of one or other of the types promoted by weather cycles in accordance with the Isuggestion of Wolter (198). This to the writer seems a much more probable surmise than that of the appearance of the gravis type as a modification of the C. diphtheriae not previously encountered.…”

“…Goeters (54) states that toxic diphtheria appeared in 1927 in a form which had not been observed for many years and has persisted ever since, while Sp6rl (168) notes that in Niirnberg there was a higher incidence of diphtheria in 1934 than in any year of this century. Outside Germany, however, there are also records of severe or peculiarly severe diphtheria in Czechoslovakia (45), in the north of France (108), in Italy (19), in Yugo-Slavia (166), in Hungary (198), in the British Isles at Leeds (2,3), at Hull (98), at Cork (154), in the Ukraine (211), and quite recently in Dundee (178).…”

“…How far do questions of nutrition play a part? Are there complex and insufficiently understood aspects of the development of mass immunity independent of artificial prophylaxis which come into play or is it determined by weather periods appearing in the shorter 35-year cycles of cold moist weather and the longer 200-year cycles as suggested by Wolter (198)? Lastly may different varieties of the diphtheria bacillus endued with different epidemic potentialities be in'volved?…”