Pathogenesis 283 



jecting the cocci beneath the dura. In this manner he 

 inoculated three rabbits and three dogs. Two of the rabbit 

 injections failed, probably because the injected material 

 escaped at once from the wound. The third rabbit died, 

 and showed marked congestion of the membranes of the 

 brain and a minute softened and hemorrhagic area. In 

 these the cocci were found by culture to be abundant. 

 The three dogs all died with congestion and pus-formation 

 in the membranes and areas of softening in the brain sub- 

 stance. The cocci were recovered from two of the dogs, 

 but the lesions of the third animal, which lived twelve days, 

 contained none. 



It is not known by what channels infection with Diplo- 

 coccus intracellularis meningitidis takes place. Weichsel- 

 baum supposed it might enter by the nasal, auditory, or 

 other passages, especially the nose, where he constantly 

 found it. In this connection it is interesting to note that 

 the only two of fifty supposedly healthy persons studied 

 by Scherer in whom this coccus was found suffered from 

 coryza, which is an almost constant early symptom of 

 cerebro-spinal meningitis. 



Steel* has found what may be a variety of the meningo- 

 coccus in the simple posterior basic meningitis 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. 



* "Pediatrics," Nov. 15, 1898. 



