“Whipple’s disease”. Whipple suggested the name lipodystrophia intestinalis (intestinal lipodystrophy) for this condition because there were abnormal lipid deposits in the small intestine wall. In figure 9 of his paper Whipple reproduced a photomicrograph clearly showing the "bacillary bodies" that were later seen by Yardley (1961). Whipple captioned the photograph, "section of gland stained by the Levaditi method. Vacuole (a) containing rod shaped organism?" In his text Whipple called these "very peculiar structures." He wrote, "The majority of these structures closely resemble in form the tubercle bacillus. They are very sharply cotoured and appear as jet black rods, sometimes bent but more often straight or only slightly curved. Some show a slight welling of one end and others a beaded appearance....Whether this is the active agent in this peculiar pathological complex cannot be determined from the study of this single case, but its distirubtion in the glands is very suggestive."

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for assisting me in updating the annotation to this entry.)