222 



(31. III. 21) 5 strains of the previously mentioned Pfeiffer's bacilli 

 from meningitis cases (which had been cultivated for from 1— 1 3 / 4 

 year), together with 5 strains from influenzal pneumonia on hae- 

 moglobin-free ascitic agar neutral to litmus and ordinary agar con- 

 taining quite a small amount of haemoglobin, without observing 

 the slightest sign that the meningitis strains were more easily satis- 

 fied as regards haemoglobin than the pneumonia strains. 



Paranhos has described a bacillus, „Bacillus seplicaemiae ca- 

 nis", as a small haemoglobinophilic rod of slight resistance in cul- 

 tures This information is however quite inadequate to disclose 

 the systematic position of the bacillus. (I have however only been 

 able to avail myself of a short summary by the author of a larger 

 contribution). 



The same author cultivated a haemoglobinophilic organism from 

 spinal fluid which however was Gram positive. I have been unable 

 to find any other report of Gram positive haemoglobinophilic bac- 

 teria apart from that of a couple of investigators who assert that 

 the ordinary Pfeiffer's bacillus may be Gram positive in prepara- 

 tions of sputum etc. and become Gram negative on cultivation. We 

 have presumably here to do with some peculiarity in the staining 

 technique of these workers. At all events it is too early to establish 

 a special group of Gram positive haemoglobinophilic bacteria. 



From 3 cases of infection of the urinary tract Davis (3) cul- 

 tivated a Gram negative bacillus which grew better anaerobically 

 than aerobically, and considerably more slowly than Pfeiffer's ba- 

 cillus; it produced haemolysis on blood agar; the appearance and 

 consistence of the growth was different from that of Pfeiffer's bacil- 

 lus; it gave no symbiosis reaction and required a larger amount 

 of blood than Pfeiffer's bacillus. It must therefore be called a 

 haemolytic haemoglobinophilic bacterium but differs in several ways 

 from the organisms previously described under this name. 



In judging the literature on the finding of haemoglobino- 

 philic bacteria (in man) we are usually up against the difficulty 

 that they have not been thoroughly enough investigated to allow 

 us to decide with certainty, whether they belong to the Pfeif- 

 fer's bacillus group or not. We have to limit ourselves to 

 finding out whether there is anything in the description which 

 negatives such a classification. If this is not the case it is 

 presumably legitimate to regard them as Pfeiffer's bacilli (in 

 so far as they were cultivated on media containing whole 

 blood corpuscles; otherwise they might be haemolytic hae- 

 moglobinophilic bacilli). 



