"70 BACTERIA IN THE SPUTA 



Some forms of Bacteria not described in the preceding 



Memoir (Fig. 4). 



All forms of Bacteria and Bacilli herein described (Figs. 4 and 

 5) are coloured with gentian violet, excluding the filament or ser- 

 pentine bacillus, h' (Fig. 5), which has been stained with iodine 

 solution. 



{a) In the preceding Memoir I maintained that the typical 

 curved Diplococci— ^, /, p (Fig. 2) — which are morphologically 

 identical with the Gonococci of Neisser, never present a capsular 

 appearance, and this proves to be so in most cases. But from 

 further observations I have found exceptions to this rule, as is 

 shown in Fig. 4^ (magnified to 690 diameters). Here, in fact, the 

 curved Diplococci are intermixed with straight Bacteria, on parallel 

 cross lines, and are enclosed with the same envelope, which con- 

 tains the whole. I found on December, 1890, similar specimens 

 for the first time in the thick, opaque sputa of a child of seventeen 

 months affected with Whooping-cough, and on the seventh day after 

 the expectoration. The sputa contained, in the midst of common 

 bacteria and bacilli, a fair number of red blood-corpuscles with a 

 few ellipsoidal epithelia and granules of myelin. But, later on, I 

 accidentally met with similar specimens in urine. This is no cause 

 for surprise, as I believe that the impregnation of microbes in the 

 urinary and spermatic passages to be the same as that of microbes 

 vegetating in sputa, as they proceed from the same parasite, Lep- 

 tothrix, which vegetates both in the mouth and in the external 

 genito-urinary passages, as I shall prove later on. 



In the third section I hope to show likewise the analogy between 

 this type of Bacterium and \hQ Jodococcus vaginatus of Miller. 



But, besides these curved diplococci, which are intermixed with 

 straight bacteria in a common envelope, others are to be found 

 coupled only and enclosed in one sheath by pairs (seldom) in the 

 patina dentaria (white deposit upon the teeth) around the rich 

 colonies of Diplococci. Their capsular appearance is made 

 striking, owing to the staining with picric acid and successive 

 saturation in glycerine. 



^,b\ — This specimen (magnified to 1750 diameters) is taken 

 from the patina dentaria^ mixed with saliva ; groups of diplococci 

 are seen in it, both large and of medium size, interwoven with 



