THE KANSAS UNIVERSITY 

 SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



Vol. X, No. 11.] January, 1917. [^orxx^Nrn. 



A Study of Several Strains of Pleomorphic Streptococci. 



NOBLE P. SHERWOOD, 

 From the Department of Bacteriology of the University of Kansas, Lawrence. 



KLEIN AND GORDON^ isolated a polymorphic streptococ- 

 cus from a series of scarlet fever cases and called it Strepto- 

 coccus scarlatina. They considered it identical with the Strepto- 

 coccus conglomeratus of^Kurth.^ Klein held that this streptococcus 

 is causally related to scarlet fever in man and is wholly distinct 

 from Streptococcus pyogenes. Gordon believed that both Strepto- 

 coccus pyogenes and Streptococcus conglomeratus may play a part 

 in the causation of scarlet fever, but that Streptococcus conglomer- 

 atus is the more important of the two, and that it occupies a 

 position in the bacteriological kingdom between Streptococcus 

 pyogenes and Bacillus diphtheria. 



Winslow^ mentions the fact that cocci isolated freshly from the 

 mouth are particularly apt to show successive pairs of flattened 

 cells and occasionally exhibit elongated rod-like cells, and that 

 large cells sometimes appear in chains of smaller cells. This is 

 probably a generally observed fact, although practically no 

 mention is made of it in the literature. 



Newman^ emphasizes an observation of Gordon that frequently 

 the streptococcus may morphologically resemble the Klebs- 

 Loeffler bacillus. 



Jean Broadhurst^ has more recently observed large cells ap- 

 pearing in sugar-broth cultures of streptococci, and remarks upon 

 the absence of reference to such variation in the literature. 



Behring^ investigated the Streptococcus longus and recognized 

 four groups. Under group three he places Kurth's Streptococcus 

 conglomeratus as one yielding or producing scaly flocks of sediment. 

 Vndrew and Horder" have classified as Streptococcus anginosus a 

 ■sdthogenic long-chained form, allied in other respects to Strepto- 

 ooccus salivarius, and bearing to it much the same relation which 



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