HEMOLYTIC STAPHYLOCOCCI 



17 



The discrepancy in uniformity of fermentation between this study 

 and that of Winslow and others is possibly due to the fact that they 

 included in their survey strains of Staph. epidermidis, ureae, candidus, 

 tetragenus, candicans, aureus and aurianticus, thereby making a survey 

 of many less active organisms than those employed in our study. 



PROTEIN METABOLISM 



Decomposition of Peptone to Amino Acids. As a rule, the only 

 accessible figures of amino acid formation of staphylococci occur 

 scattered through bacteriologic literature where the question at hand 

 was primarily a study of the nitrogen metabolism of several species and 



TABLE 7 

 FERMENTATION OF CARBOHYDRATES 



one or two strains of staphylococci were fortuitously included. Our 

 object here was to give a definite conception of the amino acid digestion 

 of peptone, and incidentally to use such an expedient for a classification, 

 if possible. 



Rosenthal and Patai 8 * found that the curve of amino acid production by 

 staphylococcus underwent an initial sharp rise within 24 hours, and this was 

 followed by a more gradual rate of increase until the fifth and sixth day. Also 

 virulent organisms produced more amino acid than the avirulent ones. Their 

 determinations were made by the S^rensen method. The work of Berman and 

 Rettger M shows that at the end of 1 week 3 strains of aureus reached an 



at Centralbl. f. Bakteriol., I, O., 1914, 73, p. 406. 

 86 Jour. Bacteriol., 1918, 3, p. 367. 



