INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND MICROBES, ETC. 193 

 ERYSIPELAS. 



This disease is due to the Micrococcus erysipela- 

 tosiis (0*4 fj, diam.) which abounds in the lymphatic 

 vessels of the skin at the margin of an erysipelatous 

 zone. This microbe, which is smaller than M. 

 vaccinice, occurs singly and in chains, as well as 

 zooglcea. The microbe grows on nutrient gelatine, 

 agar-agar, and solid blood-serum, as a whitish film 

 on the surface of the nourishing medium. Orth * 

 and Fehleisen 2 have both cultivated the microbe 

 artificially, and reproduced the disease in rabbits. 

 But Fehleisen went a step further and reproduced 

 the disease in man by inoculating three patients 

 with pure cultivations of the microbe. 'These 

 inoculations were justifiable because they were 

 undertaken with a view to cure certain tumours. 

 Thus one case of lupus, one case of cancer, 3 one case 

 of sarcoma, were considerably affected, and to the 

 good of the patients.' In the human subject typical 

 erysipelas was produced in fifteen to sixty hours 

 after inoculation. 



Pasteur, 1887; Reye8 in Gac. Med. Mexico, 1889, p. 344; 

 Dolan in Provincial Medical Journal, 1890, p. 137 ; Zagari in 

 Giornale Inter nazionale delle Scienze Mediche, 1890 ; Hime in 

 Lancet, 1886, p. 184 ; Griffiths' Researcftes on Micro-Organisms, 

 p. 323. 



1 Archivfur Experim. Pathol, 1874. 



a Die Aetiolcyie des Erysipels, 1883. 



8 If cancer is due to Scheuerlein's Cancer bacillus, it is pro- 

 bable that the M. erysipelatosus is antagonistic to its growth. 



