In the late summer and autumn of 1918, an outbreak of infectious diarrhea occurred at the St. Anne Barracks, Nantes, in Base Section No. 1, A. E. F. In the course of an investigation of this outbreak, I isolated a micrococcus from a number of cases which shows evidence of being the etiologic agent.
Infectious diarrhea had been prevalent throughout the base section, especially in the camps in the vicinity of St. Nazaire, and epidemics of a similar nature had been reported in other parts of France. The prevalence of infectious diarrhea throughout the A. E. F. was known to practically all the members of it, and particularly to those who were directly concerned with the control of the communicable diseases. There are no data available giving the exact number of cases that occurred. Repeated attempts to obtain information resulted only in approximations based on the total strength of command.