Staphylococci Pyogenes Aureus et Albus 349 



the staphylococcus be injected into the circulation, osteo- 

 myelitis may occur. Numerous observers have demon- 

 strated its presence in ulcerative endocarditis. Rodet has 

 been able to produce osteomyelitis without previous injury 

 to the bones; Rosenbach was able to produce ulcerative 

 endocarditis by injecting some of the staphylococci into the 

 circulation in animals whose cardiac valves had been injured 

 by a sound passed into the carotid artery; and Ribbert has 

 shown that the injection of cultures of the organism may 

 cause valvular lesions without preceding injury. 



Virulence. Experiments have shown that both Staphy- 

 lococci aureus and albus exist in attenuated and virulent 

 forms, and there is every reason to believe that in the major- 

 ity of instances they inhabit the surface of the body in a 

 feebly virulent condition. 



Agglutination. Kolle and Otto* have found that im- 

 mune antistaphylococcic serums agglutinate the staphylo- 

 cocci. The reaction is not specific and is peculiar. All 

 pathogenic staphylococci are agglutinated; non-pathogenic 

 cocci are not agglutinated. The reaction cannot, therefore, 

 be used for specific differentiation. 



Specific Therapy. The treatment of staphylococcus in- 

 fections with immune serum has not met with encouraging 

 success. Viqueratf has experimented in this direction and 

 found that goats are best adapted to the manufacture of 

 the serum ; but the literature of medicine contains very little 

 mention of beneficial results following the employment of 

 antistaphylococcus serums. 



Denys and van de Veldet and Neisser and Wechsberg 

 also produced antileukocytic serum. 



Bacterio= vaccination. Although specific serums have 

 failed, a promising form of specific treatment for subacute 

 and chronic staphylococcic infections has been introduced by 

 A. B. Wright, || who first isolates from the lesion the partic- 

 ular strain of staphylococci by which it is caused, cultivates 

 this artificially, suspends the organisms in an indifferent 

 fluid, of which a given quantity contains a known (counted) 



* "Zeitschrift fur Hygiene," etc., 1902, xu. 

 t Ibid., xvm, 1894, p. 483. 

 } "La Cellule," 1895, xi. 

 " Zeitschrift fur Hygiene," 1901, xxxn. 



|| "Lancet," March 29, 1902, p. 874; "Brit. Med. Jour.," May 9, 

 1903, p. 1069. 



