STUDIES IN CHRONIC ARTHRITIS AND CHOREA 515 



5. Transplantation was made as soon as the earliest colony- 

 appeared, for in the original culture, there seemed to be only a 

 low degree of viability. More frequently than otherwise no trans- 

 plant was obtained after waiting for the culture to develop fully. 

 Up to a certain point these cultures seemed to increase in viability 

 by transplantation, but the majority of our cultures did not 

 survive six or eight transplantations. 



6. The character of the growth in the original blood culture 

 was not always typically that of Streptococcus viridans. Only 

 three produced green in the original culture, but the remaining 

 11 did so in the transplants. These original colonies appeared 

 like little black spots that could be seen only in a good light. 

 In addition to the fourteen positive blood cultures herein re- 

 ported we obtained six additional cultures which we were unable 

 to transplant. These colonies were of the type just described; 

 they retained the Gram stain, and presented on the slide the 

 morphology of the other colonies which were transplanted and 

 identified. 



7. Identification of the transplants was done by Dr. Thro. All 

 transplants had the same cultural characters : 



Did not break up in bile 



Did not peptonize milk 



Grew in chains in broth 



Produced green in blood 



Retained the Gram stain 



Were of low grade virulency to rabbits 



Blood cultures were taken in 104 cases and this organism was 

 found in 14 cases, and no bacteria but this organism were found 

 in any culture. The organism in question can be classed as 

 Streptococcus viridans. Control cultures were made from the 

 blood of other patients and no growth of this organism was 

 obtained. 



Complement fixation tests with Streptococcus viridans antigens 

 were done in all cases. The technique of complement fixation 

 was based on the work of Schwartz and MacNeil (1911) in their 

 study of complement fixation in gonorrhoeal infections, and on the 



