I I 6 BACTERIOLOGY. 



layers or terraces. The growth is so slow that in 

 two to three weeks the maximum width of the 

 culture-streak is about 2 to 3 mm. On solidified 

 blood serum the cocci grow as on agar-agar. 

 They do not liquefy any nutrient medium. In 

 a vacuum they rapidly cause the decomposition 

 of white of egg or beef which are energetically 

 peptonised. 



Streptococcus erysipelatis. Minute cocci -4^ 

 to *3 fji occur in chains in human erysipelatous 

 skin, and in the fluid of erysipelatous bullae. They 

 occupy the lymphatic channels of the skin, and 

 spread along them as the disease progresses.* 



They can be cultivated artificially in nutrient gela- 

 tine or agar-agar, and produce typical erysipelas 

 when re-inoculated in man or animals. f The 

 characteristic erysipelatous blush is produced by 

 inoculating these micro-organisms in the ear of 

 a rabbit. In the human subject the disease was 

 produced in fifteen to sixty hours after inoculation. 

 A beneficial result was obtained in cases of lupus, 

 cancer, and sarcoma, this being the object for 

 which the latter inoculations were undertaken. J 



The appearances of cultivations very strongly 

 resemble those already described in streptococcus 

 pyogenes. There is less tendency, however, to the 

 formation of terraces, the edge of the growth is 



* Lukomsky, Virch. Archiv, vol. Ix. 



t Orth, Archivfiir exfi. Pathol. u. PharmacoL, Bd. i., 1873. 



J Fehleisen, Aetiologie des Erysifiels. 1883. 



