Streptococcus Mucosus 359 



Antistreptococcus Serum. Since 1895 considerable at- 

 tention has been bestowed upon the antistreptococcus serum 

 of Marmorek* and Gromakowsky, f which is said to act 

 specifically upon streptococcus infections, both general and 

 local. Numerous cases of suppuration, septic infection, 

 puerperal fever, and scarlatina are upon record in which 

 the serum seems to have exerted a beneficial action, and it 

 may be that antiphlogistic serums will occupy an important 

 place in the medicine of the future. 



The serum is prepared by the injection of cultures of 

 living virulent streptococci, into horses, until a high degree 

 of immunity is attained. The serum is probably both 

 antitoxic and bactericidal in action. 



The success following the serums of some experimenters 

 upon certain cases, and their occasional or constant failure 

 in other cases, have suggested that there is considerable 

 difference between different " strains " or families of strep- 

 tococci. To obviate this inequality Van de VeldeJ has made 

 a polyvalent antistreptococcus serum by using a number 

 of different cultures secured from the most diverse clinical 

 cases of streptococcus infection. Another serum, of Tavel 

 and Moser, || is made by using cultures from different cases 

 of scarlatina. The use of these serums, however, has not 

 given the satisfaction expected, and at the present moment 

 the whole subject of antistreptococcus serums is debatable 

 both from the standpoint of its theoretic scientific basis 

 and its therapeutic application. 



STREPTOCOCCUS Mucosus (HOWARD AND PERKINS). 



This organism, described by Howard and Perkins,** was 

 isolated from a case of tubo-ovarian abscess with generalized 

 infection, and again later by Schottm tiller ft from a case 

 of parametritis, peritonitis, meningitis, and phlebitis. 



It occurs as a rounded coccus in pairs and in short chains, 

 though sometimes long chains of a hundred were observed. 



* "Ann. de 1'Inst. Pasteur," t. ix, No. 7, July 25, 1895, p. 593. 



t Ibid. 



J "Archiv. de. med. Exper.," 1897. 



"Deutsche med. Wochenschrift," 1903, No. 50. 



|| "Berliner klin. Wochenschrift," 1902, 13. 

 ** "Journal of Medical Research," 1901, N. S. I, 163. 

 ft "Munch, med. Wochenschrift," 1903, xxi. 



