Abstract
The Choice of Methods. In order to decide what methods we should use to demonstrate the microörganisms that might have a relationship to acute infections of the upper respiratory tract, we first investigated those previously reported for the demonstration of such organisms. We were unable, however, in the large majority of the reports to find methods given in enough detail to use them as standards for comparison. Such questions as the following, for example, were usually treated vaguely. Just how and from what areas the material for examination was collected and at what stages of the disease? What definitely described culture media were used and how were they inoculated? How were the resulting cultures handled in order to demonstrate strain relationship?
From the standpoint of arranging methods, we divided the microörganisms for which claims had been made into two general groups, namely, aerobic and anaerobic microbes, subdividing each into filtrable and non-filtrable microbes.
