278 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



persons studied by Scherer in which this coccus was 

 found suffered from 'coryza, which is an almost constant 

 symptom of cerebrospinal meningitis. 



The distribution of the Diplococcus intracellularis in 

 nature is as yet unknown. It has been found in 

 cerebrospinal meningitis by those who have looked for 

 it, has been found in the nose in coryza twice by 

 Scherer, has been found in the conjunctiva by Carl 

 Frankel 1 and Axenfeld, 2 and in rhinitis and otitis by 

 Joger. 3 It occurs in above 50 per cent, of the cases of 

 cerebrospinal meningitis, but fails satisfactorily to fulfil 

 the requirements of the laws of specificity. 



For staining the meningococcus the method of Pick 

 and Jacobsohn 4 is highly praised by Carl Frankel, who 

 modifies it by adding three times as much carbol-fuchsin 

 as is recommended in the original method, which is as 

 follows : Mix 20 c.cm. of water with 8 drops of saturated 

 methylene-blue solution; then add 45-50 drops of carbol- 

 fuchsin. Allow the fluid to act upon the cover-glass for 

 five minutes. The cocci alone are blue, all else red. 



Carl Frankel, in discussing the micro-organism, points 

 out that its morphologic peculiarities have much in 

 common with the pneuinococcus, so that the most re- 

 fined methods of differentiation should always precede a 

 positive diagnosis. Its resemblance to the gonococcus 

 should also be kept in mind. 



Steel 5 describes what may be a variety of the menin- 

 gococcus that occurs in the simple posterior basic menin- 

 gitis of infants. The organism differs from that of 

 Weichselbaum in having a more permanent saprophytic 

 existence upon culture-media, where it often lives as long 

 as thirty days. It is easily stained by methylene blue, 

 but not by Gram's method. 



1 Zeitschrift fiir Hygiene, June 1 4, 1899. 



2 Lubarsch and Oestertag, Ergebnisse der allg. Path. u. path. Anat., iii., 



S- 573- 



s Deutsche med. Wochenschrift, 1894, S. 407- 

 * Berlin, klin. Wochenschrift, 1896, S. 811. 

 5 Pediatrics, Nov. 15, 1898. 



