140 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



short-rods with rounded ends, measuring about 1 //, 

 in length. On nutrient gelatine it forms circular 

 colonies, which, however, become irregular, granular, 

 refractive, and of a yellow colour. It was isolated 

 from certain cases of cholera at Naples ; but it has 

 nothing to do with the disease, for it is only sapro- 

 phytic in man. 



Bacterium septicum sputigenum. This microbe is 

 identical with Sternberg's Micrococcus Pasteurianus 

 and Frankel's Bacillus septicus sputigenus. It is 

 present in human saliva, and occurs as short rods, 

 frequently joined together in chains of five, six, or 

 seven links. It is usually obtained from the rusty 

 sputum of pneumonic patients and from severe cases 

 of empysemia. It gro\^s well in bouillon and on 

 agar-agar at 34 C., but slowly on gelatine plates. 

 The colonies are granular and white. This microbe 

 is pathogenic in rabbits, mice, and guinea-pigs, but 

 fowls and dogs have an immunity. Dr. Watson 

 Cheyne l says that it ' apparently loses its virulence 

 when cultivated outside the body. The blood of 

 rabbits which have died of this microbe is very 

 virulent, a small quantity being sufficient to set up 

 the disease in a fresh animal, but when grown in 

 meat-infusion, agar-agar, etc., it rapidly (in three or 

 four days, unless re-inoculated into fresh material) 

 loses its virulence, and the dose necessary to cause 

 death increases as the cultivation becomes older. 

 When it does not cause death it may produce a 

 slight local effect, and such animals are apparently 

 protected from a subsequent inoculation with viru- 



1 .British Medical Journal, July 31, 1886. 



