After several months I did indeed isolate mycoplasmas from the middle ears of these animals, but it also turned out that the middle ears were infected with another microorganism, a very strange microorganism, who's name escapes me at the moment, but it's not terribly critical, but this microorganism was of interest because it had properties of mycoplasmas, yet it was a bacterium. It was investigated to a large extent by a German woman scientist who immigrated to the UK and worked at the Lister Institute in London, and her name was Emmy Klieneberger-Nobel, one of the famous names in the beginning of the research done on mycoplasmas.

This strange organism, which is called streptobacillus moniliformis, had features shared with the mycoplasmas whose details are not terribly important at this point, but because of the shared features, that people thought that mycoplasmas could arise from streptobacillus moniliformis, because it had a large bulge on part of its anatomy, of course it's a microscopic organism, and people thought that the reproductive units for mycoplasmas might be contained within those bulges on the part of this microorganism. That was the connection; there were other connections as well. But although I isolated both organisms, I don't... I never really established the etiology of the disease during my career there, although I did find out that it was present in virtually all middle ear infections. I also learned to my surprise... I remember being told this by my chief, Warren Steinbring, who came to me one day and he said, 'You know, Len', he said, 'you're the only one in the department who has ever isolated mycoplasmas free in nature. All of the mycoplasmas used in the department were cultures that were obtained from other investigators around the world, but you have managed to isolate one free in nature', and I was puzzled by this, I didn't realise it, but that's a satisfying thing to know.