THE KANSAS UNIVERSITY 

 SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



Vol. XIIL] MAY, 1920. [No. 6. 



Possible Methods of Classifying White, Yellow and 

 Orange Staphylococci.* 



BY MARTHA BAYS. 



From Department of Bacteriolosry. University of Kansas. Lawrence. Kan. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



STAPHYLOCOCCI were first found in pus by Pasteur ^ 

 (1880). Ogston - confirmed Pasteur's work a year later 

 (1881), and in 1883 Becker '■ was able to isolate staphylococci 

 in pure culture. Rosenback ^ (1884) described staphylococcus 

 pyogenes, dividing if into two varieties corresponding to the 

 orange and white pigmentation, calling them var. aureus and 

 var. albus. In 1908 the Winslows ' based their classification 

 upon gro\\'th. pigment production and liquefaction of gelatin. 



Dudgeon'^ (1908) found staphylococcus albus commonly in 

 normal tissue while staphylococcus aureus was usually ob- 

 tained from pathogenic sources. He was interested in the 

 interchangeability of these two varieties and worked upon a 

 classification of these organisms, using glucose, lactose, malt- 

 ose, glycerin, cane sugar, raffinose. erythrite, salacin, litmus 

 milk and neutral red. He finally concluded that they all be- 

 longed to the same species. 



Winslow, Rothberg and Parsons" (1920) studied 180 cul- 

 tures of white and orange staphylococci to determine their ac- 

 tion upon the sugars, glucose, lactose, sucrose, maltose, raffin- 

 ose, mannitol, dulcitol, salacin and inulin. They used two dif- 

 ferent media, the dehydrated bacto nutrient broth prepared by 



* Thesis offered as partial fulfillment cd the degree of Master of Arts. University of 

 Kansas, Lawrence, Kan. Received for publication August 28, 1920. 



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