2 BIOLOGY OF PNEUMOCOCCUS 



ally becomes necessary to decide which special events constitute a 

 discovery. Is it the report of the first sight of the organism in the 

 fluids or tissues of the infected animal ; is it the first formal asso- 

 ciation of the virus with a disease ; is it the setting up of a specific 

 infection in an alien animal species ; or must one await the complete 

 fulfilment of all the postulates of Koch's law? 



It is not essential to our purpose to be too exacting in asking or 

 answering these questions. It should suffice to describe the observa- 

 tions of early pioneers and their successors in the order of their 

 happening. 



1875-1890 



In 1875, Klebs 718 was probably the first to see — or at least the 

 first to tell about seeing — Pneumococcus. Searching for proof of 

 the infectious nature of pneumonia, he examined fluid from the 

 lungs of men dying of the disease and found non-motile, sometimes 

 linked monads in astonishing numbers. Growing these cocci on egg 

 albumen, he thought they developed motility when grouped in 

 chains, but their true identity escaped him. In 1880, Eberth 347 was 

 undoubtedly looking at pneumococci when he examined the exudate 

 from a gray-hepatized lung and the subarachnoid fluid of a pneu- 

 monia patient with a secondary meningitis. His description of the 

 organisms as non-motile, slightly oval, almost round bodies, occa- 

 sionally occurring singly but more often in pairs, taken with their 

 source, makes it seem more than likely they were pneumococci, but 

 Eberth thought they were only varieties of diphtheria or pyemia 

 micrococci. Matray, 869 " 70 in the same year, gave the name Pneu- 

 moniekokken to the cocci which he found in the sputum of pneu- 

 monia patients and in normal sputum as well. Had animal inocu- 

 lation been tried by either Eberth or Matray their find would have 

 preceded the real discovery by Pasteur and Sternberg by over a 

 year; but it was not tried. 



In 1881, these two authors, Pasteur and Sternberg, independ- 

 ently inoculating rabbits, the former with the saliva of a child 



