248 BIOLOGY OF PNEUMOCOCCUS 



with which active immunity could be evoked against Type II but 

 not against Type I Pneumococcus. Saito admitted that the prepa- 

 ration still contained traces of the soluble specific substance. 



An apparent relationship between pneumococcal antibodies and 

 both the protein and non-protein fractions of Gonococcus has been 

 reported by Boor and Miller (1931). 138 The protein substance — 

 nucleoprotein according to the authors — in a dilution of 1 to 

 1,000 gave definite precipitation with Types I and II antipneumo- 

 coccic serum and in as high as a 1 to 10,000 dilution with Type 

 III serum. The non-protein fraction was even more potent, react- 

 ing positively, and always more strongly with Type III serum, in 

 ten to one hundred times the maximal dilution of the protein frac- 

 tion. 



Boor and Miller observed cross reactions between the gono- 

 coccal antiserum and the C Fraction of Tillett and Francis and 

 there is good reason to believe that the non-protein fraction ob- 

 tained from Gonococcus and the C Fraction of Pneumococcus are 

 similar if not identical. The results, because of their seeming bio- 

 logical importance, deserve further study. There is a factor, how- 

 ever, which should not be overlooked and that is the participation 

 of agar in serological reactions, as demonstrated by Sordelli and 

 Mayer 1306 in the case of other organisms grown on agar media. 



Stull (1929) 1349 furnished figures for some of the chemical con- 

 stituents of Type III Pneumococcus.* A virulent strain of the or- 

 ganism was grown in beef-infusion peptone glucose broth for six- 

 teen to eighteen hours and centrifuged; then the sediment was 

 washed in distilled water, and dried at 55°. Analyses of the mate- 

 rial gave the following results expressed in percentage amounts : 

 Volatile matter at 105°— 4.77; ash— 6.48 to 8.64; nitrogen— 

 13.00 to 13.32 ; acid-insoluble nitrogen and acid-soluble nitrogen 



* In this connection there should be mentioned the analyses of Leineweber, 

 Kautsky, and Famulener,799 which were taken to indicate the, comparative uni- 

 formity of pneumococci of the four types in the amount of nitrogen, and there- 

 fore of protein contained. 



