WHITE AND ORANGE STAPHYLOCOCCI 147 



Both these American systematic studies of the staphylococci 

 were based on a rather small series of strains. The Winslows had 

 181 orange forms in their series, of which 126 were liquefiers, 

 but only 23 white forms including 14 liquefiers. Kligler studied 

 only 15 orange and 12 white strains. In order to throw further 

 light on the relationships of these organisms, it seemed worth 

 while to collect a larger series of strains and to submit them to 

 a more exhaustive series of quantitative tests. This was the 

 purpose of the present study. 



SOURCE OF CULTURES 



Our aim in collecting the cultures for this investigation was 

 to obtain 100 strains, each, of white and orange cocci, of which 

 about half should be from the human body and about half from 

 air, dust, water and other environmental sources. 



We finally obtained a total of 185 strains, of which 5 were 

 discarded for reasons to be noted later; and our complete studies 

 were conducted on 180 different strains. Of these, 104 were 

 from pathological conditions in men and animals, 22 were isolated 

 from the hands and 54 were isolated from air, dust or water. 



The 104 pathogenic strains were courteously furnished for 

 our use by Parke, Davis and Company, H. K. Mulford Com- 

 pany, The Abbott Laboratories and the Lederle Laboratories, 

 and they came from a widely diversified series of conditions of 

 which the following were the most important; abscesses, acne, 

 boils, cellulitis, conjunctivitis, coryza, endometritis, furunculosis, 

 gonorrhea, impetigo, osteomyelitis, otitis media, pharyngitis, 

 pyorrhea, prostatitis, sarcoma, septicemia, sinus infection, 

 tonsillitis, tuberculosis, ulcers, urethritis, whooping cough and 

 wound infections in man; abscesses, distempers, equine influenza, 

 mange, nasal discharge and septicemia in the horse. Whether 

 the organisms sent to us bore any etiological relation to these 

 diseased conditions is of course uncertain, but they were in all 

 cases isolated from tissues in which an active disease process was 

 in progress. 



