452 PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS 



There are occasions, then, both within the animal body and in arti- 

 ficial cultivations, when it is practically impossible to distinguish 



rich growth on gelatin, agar, and potato. A pellicle was formed on broth. The 

 organisms forming this pellicle had capsules, but those in the deeper portions 

 of the broth generally lacked it. 



In 1897 Binaghi (Binaghi, Cent. f. Bakt., xxii, 1897, p. 273) described a 

 capsulated streptococcus isolated from a guinea-pig dead of a spontaneous peri- 

 bronchitis and multiple pulmonary abscesses. In the pus were found some diplo- 

 cocci and short chains (four to six) surrounded by a cupsule, shown by staining 

 with carbol fuchsin. This organism he proposes to call Streptococcus capsulatus. 

 Le Koy des Barres and Weinberg in 1899 (Le Eoy des Barres et Weinberg, 

 Arch. d. med. exper., xi, 1899, p. 399) published an account of a streptococcus 

 with a capsule. This was isolated from a man who had apparently been infected 

 from a horse which had died of an acute intestinal disorder. The patient neglected 

 the infection and died. Diplococci and short chains furnished with a capsule 

 were found in the subcutaneous tissue at the area of infection. The blood, liver, 

 and spleen also contained these organisms. The capsule in all the preparations 

 remained uncolored, but the authors say that its existence was not to be doubted. 

 Ascitic broth inoculated from the peritoneal exudate of a rabbit dying from the 

 infection gave streptococci in extremely long chains and surrounded by capsules. 

 These were not so distinct as in the case of the organisms in the original smear 

 preparations. All fluid media (bouillon, milk, and ascitic broth) were said to 

 be strongly acid after twenty-four hours. These authors report that Achard and 

 Marmorek have assured them that they have seen capsulated streptococci, and 

 that Marmorek showed them some preparations in which one of his streptococci 

 presented the same characters as that isolated by them. 



Although Le Eoy des Barres and Weinberg have used the term encapsulated, 

 they believe that it would perhaps be more prudent to call their organism strepto- 

 coque aureole, since they were not able to define this capsule by staining it. 



t Howard and Perkins (Howard and Perkins, Jour. Med. Res., 1901, iv, p. 163) 

 have lately described an organism, probably of the foregoing type, which was 

 present in a tubo-ovarian abscess and in the peritoneal exudate, the blood, and 

 some of the organs of a woman dying in the Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio. 

 The organisms were biscuit -shaped cocci in pairs, usually arranged in chains of 

 four, six, eight, or twenty elements, and surrounded by a wide and sharply 

 staining capsule. In the artificial cultures special capsule stains, it was noted, 

 failed to stain any definite area, but numerous small deeply stained granules 

 were to be seen within the halo, especially near its outer border. Howard and 

 Perkins propose for the group composed of the streptococci of Bonome, Binaghi, 

 and their own organism, the name Streptococcus mucosus. Streptococci isolated 

 from cases of epidemic sore-throat have also shown capsules (p. 421). 



Reference to the original descriptions of these various capsulated streptococci 

 will show that, with the exception of a rather poorly staining capsule, the 

 majority of these organisms are separated from the typical Streptococcus pyogenes 

 or from the pneumococcus by exceedingly slight and unstable morphological and 

 cultural characters. This is true of the difference in their pathogenic action 

 in animals. 



