270 BACTERIOLOGY 



Sarcina lutea, and Sarcina aurantiaca, while the green 

 colour is caused by the Bacillus pyocyaneus and Bacillus 

 fluorescens non-liquefaciens. Virchow and Lichtheim not 

 rarely found moulds in the sputum, and amongst these 

 particularly Aspergillus fumigatus. The fungus of thrush 

 and yeast cells may also be frequently met with, and 

 moreover, Fasching found here his Bacillus capsulatus 

 mucosus. 



Sarcina pulmonum. Even in earlier years different 

 authors have described sarcinae in the sputum which they 

 considered identical with Sarcina ventriculi. By the re- 

 searches of Hauser, however, it was brought out that a 

 special variety has here to be dealt with, distinguished 

 at once from the last-named by its smaller size. No 

 pathogenic properties can be ascribed to it, but it pos- 

 sesses the faculty of energetically decomposing urine, a 

 power shared by it with a sarcina discovered in that ex- 

 cretion by Leube. Gelatine is not liquefied, and on the 

 plate small white colonies develop which appear indented 

 at the margin and concentrically stratified during their 

 growth. A superficial moist coating forms in thrust- 

 cultures. Upon potatoes the growth is very scanty. 



Sarcina aurea. Mace isolated from the lung of a patient, 

 who had died of pneumonia with purulent pleuritis, a variety 

 of sarcina, the elements of which possess a very lively 

 oscillating motility. Some of them stain bluish-violet with 

 iodine and sulphuric acid, a reaction indicating the presence 

 of cellulose or starch in the sarcina. They develop a 

 beautiful golden-yellow pigment which is soluble in absolute 

 alcohol, and liquefy gelatine with tolerable rapidity. In 

 thrust-cultures a thick friable membrane, which very readily 

 falls apart into separate pieces, develops upon the surface 

 of the funnel-shaped area of liquefaction ; on agar there 

 forms a thick streak with warty surface and of a shining 



