CULTURE OF THE TUBERCLE BACILLUS BY THE LÖWENSTEIN METHOD

Since the discovery of the tubercle bacillus by Koch in 1882, there have been numerous attempts to obtain a pure culture of the bacilli from the flowing blood. Löwenstein,1in 1905, believing that there was a bacillemia in tuberculosis, was able to culture tubercle bacilli from the cardiac blood of dogs and guinea-pigs which had been inoculated with the bacilli. He believed that a septicemia in tuberculosis was not uncommon, even without clinical miliary tuberculosis. Since 1924, his work in this field has attracted considerable attention both in Europe and in America. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The history of the cultivation of the tubercle bacillus from the blood has been excellently reviewed in detail by Russew2and Jontofsohn.3Their work has been freely quoted in the following discussion: As early as 1868 Villemin proved the presence of tubercle bacilli in the flowing blood by injecting the blood from tuberculous patients into