CHAPTER III. 

 CEREBRO-SPINAL MENINGITIS. 



DIPLOCOCCUS INTRACELLULARIS MKNINGITIDIS 

 (WEICHSELBAUM) . 



General Characteristics. A minute non-motile, non-flagellate, 

 non-sporogenous, non-liquefying, aerobic and optionally anaerobic, 

 pathogenic coccus, staining by ordinary methods, but not by Gram's 

 method. 



Acute sero-purulent inflammation of the cerebral and 

 spinal meninges frequently presents itself as a complication 

 of well-known infectious processes, such as croupous pneu- 

 monia, and not infrequently occurs as a primary sporadic 

 or epidemic affection. It is to the primary sporadic or 

 epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis that the following con- 

 siderations are devoted. Cerebro-spinal meningitis is usu- 

 ally associated with one of three micro-organisms the 

 pneumococcus, the streptococcus, and Diplococcus intra- 

 cellularis meningitidis of Weichselbaum. In more rare cases 

 the staphylococci, the typhoid bacillus, and other bacteria 

 may present themselves. 



In the primary form of the disease Diplococcus intra- 

 cellularis meningitidis seems to be the specific organism. 



Distribution. As early as 1887 Weichselbaum* carefully 

 described a diplococcus found in six cases of cerebro-spinal 

 meningitis that may have been identical with one found 

 by Leichtenstern f in the purulent exudate of a case of 

 meningitis. Weichselbaum 's studies and description of this 

 coccus seem to have attracted but little attention at first, 

 and references to them are but brief in most of the text- 

 books. The prevailing opinion as to its presence was that 

 its occurrence in cerebro-spinal meningitis was accidental, as 

 inoculations into animals showed its pathogenic power to 

 be very limited. The careful studies of Jager,| Scherer, 



* "Fortschritte der Med.," v, 18 and 19. 



t "Deutsche med. Wochenschrift," 1885. 



t "Zeitschrift fur Hygiene," xix, 2, 351. 



"Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk.," xvn, 13 and 14. 



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