Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Harvard University Medical School, Boston.
J Exp Med. 1931 Feb 28;53(3):333-8. doi: 10.1084/jem.53.3.333.
The above experiments demonstrate that guinea pigs and rats subjected to vitamin-deficient diets to a point at which deficiency symptoms appear, and then inoculated with typhus virus, exhibit clinical pictures which indicate a far more severe infection than that observed in normal animals after inoculation. There is also a wider distribution of Rickettsiae and a concentration of organisms which, in pleural and peritoneal exudates, amounts to almost cultural proportions. Important from our point of view is the fact that these experiments furnished a step toward the accomplishment of our purpose, which was to obtain amounts and concentrations of Rickettsiae suitable for immunological studies until such a time when tissue culture may have developed to a practically useful stage. The experiments are of immediate importance in that they furnish us a method for improving our technique of active immunization reported upon in the preceding paper, No. V (8). From the epidemiological point of view these experiments at least suggest an explanation of one of the important factors which enter into the historical association of high typhus mortality with war and famine.
上述实验表明，豚鼠和大鼠在接受缺乏维生素的饮食，直到出现缺乏症状的程度，然后接种斑疹伤寒病毒后，其临床症状表明感染比正常动物接种后更为严重。立克次体的分布范围更广，在胸膜和腹膜渗出物中的浓度达到几乎培养的程度。从我们的角度来看，重要的是这样一个事实，这些实验为我们的目的提供了一个步骤，我们的目的是获得适合免疫研究的立克次体数量和浓度，直到组织培养可能发展到实际有用的阶段。这些实验具有直接的重要意义，因为它们为我们提供了一种方法来改进我们在前一篇论文（第 5 号）中报告的主动免疫的技术。从流行病学的角度来看，这些实验至少为一个重要因素提供了一种解释，该因素与历史上高斑疹伤寒死亡率与战争和饥荒有关。
