U IN I v L_ n o i i T 



OF 



PNEUMONIA. 299 



others a mucus-like secretion given off by the cells. When 

 grown ordinarily in culture-media, and especially upon 

 solid media, the capsules are absent. 



The organism is without motility, has no spores, and 

 does not seem to be able to resist any unfavorable con- 

 ditions when grown artificially. It stains well with the 

 ordinary solutions of the anilin dyes, and gives most 

 beautiful pictures in blood and tissues when stained by 

 Gram's method. The capsule does not stain. 



The bacillus is no stranger to us, but can frequently be 

 found in the saliva of healthy individuals, and the inocu- 

 lation of human saliva into rabbits generally causes a 

 septicemia in which the bacillus is found abundantly in 

 the blood and tissues. Because of its constant presence 

 in the saliva it was described by Flugge as the Bacillus 

 septicus sputigenus. 



When desired for purposes of study, it can be obtained 

 by inoculating rabbits with saliva and recovering the or- 

 ganisms from their blood, or it can be secured from the 

 rusty sputum of pneumonia by the method employed 

 by Kitasato for securing tubercle bacilli from sputum. 

 A single mouthful of fresh sputum is secured, washed 

 in several changes of sterile water to free it from bacteria 

 of the mouth and pharynx, carefully separated, and a cen- 

 tral portion transferred to an appropriate culture-medium. 



The organism grows upon all the culture-media except 

 potato, but only between the temperature extremes of 

 24 and 42 C. ; the best development is at 37 C. The 

 growth is always limited, probably because the formic 

 acid produced serves to check it. The addition of an 

 unusual amount of alkali to the culture-medium favors 

 the growth. 



The organisms readily lose their virulence in culture- 

 media, and cease to be pathogenic after a few days. Not 

 only is this true, but they seem to be unable to accom- 

 modate themselves to a purely saprophytic life, and un- 

 less continually transplanted to new media die in a week 

 or two, sometimes sooner. 



