BEHAVIOR OF BACTERIOPHAGE IN DISEASE 483 



5. THE BACTERIOPHAGE IN STAPHYLOCOCCUS AND STREPTOCOCCUS 

 INFECTIONS 



But very little is known of how the bacteriophage behaves in infec- 

 tious processes due to these Gram-positive cocci, but that the bacterio- 

 phage is found in association with such infections is beyond question. 



I have reported^^^ the isolation of a bacteriophage virulent for the 

 staphylococcus from an abscess after a bite on the finger made by a 

 guinea pig. Gratia^^* isolated a bacteriophage from an abscess on the 

 face. Callow^^^ recovered a race from the pus in a case of furunculosis, 

 and Kropveld'*" invariably found it in furunculosis and in the pus of 

 anthrax cases. 



The behavior of the bacteriophage in staphylococcus infections 

 offers a very interesting field for study. 



In 2 cases where I isolated races from the sanguineous pus of anthrax 

 lesions, opened at the beginning of the fluctuation, the races found 

 showed, in addition to a virulence for Staphylococcus aureus, a very 

 definite virulence for some colonies of B. coli isolated from the stools 

 of the same individuals. 



In studying some cases of streptococcus angina, Piorkowski^-^ demon- 

 strated a bacteriophage in scrapings from the tonsils. From his studies 

 he concluded that when the virulence of the races for the streptococcus 

 was high it should be considered as a favorable sign. 



Eichhoff has carried out a series of investigations, in Kiittner's clinic 

 in Berlin and at the Institute of Hygiene at Breslau, in which he isolated 

 races of the bacteriophage virulent for the staphylococcus and for the 

 streptococcus from the pus of various types of lesion, as well as from the 

 stools of patients recovering from infections due to these organisms. 

 Incidentally, he showed that certain races of the bacteriophage virulent 

 for B. dysenteriae Shiga exert a destructive action upon the staphylococ- 

 cus and the streptococcus. 



6. THE BACTERIOPHAGE IN COLON BACILLUS INFECTIONS 



Sometimes the colon bacillus may become pathogenic and may be 

 encountered as the etiological agent in diverse localized infections, or 

 even in septicemias. It at first appears strange that so common an 

 organism, a normal inhabitant of the intestine, should at a particular 

 time develop pathogenicity. There must be "a something" which 

 differentiates the pathogenic B. coli from the banal B. coli. It is this 

 which I have tried to determine. 



