192 CLASSIFICATION OF THE MICKO-OKGANISMS. 



Action on between the two forms of streptococci. Subcutaneous 

 inoculations in mice are always without effect, the 

 wounds almost always healing without suppuration. In 

 rabbits inoculation on the cornea sets up keratitis, as in 

 the case of streptococcus pyogenes ; inoculations on the 

 ear cause in the majority of cases an erysipelas which is 

 recognised by redness and elevation of temperature of 

 the ear ; it appears later, and is not accompanied by such 

 intense redness as is the case with the inflammation due 

 to the streptococcus pyogenes. A sharply limited red- 

 ness appears in the neighbourhood of the point of inocu- 

 lation within 36 to 48 hours ; and this extends in the 

 direction of the veins as far as the root of the ear. In 

 sections of the affected ear the lymphatic vessels are 

 filled with micrococci in numerous places. The animals 

 recover completely after a few days ; intravenous injec- 

 tions of large quantities of the organisms are also borne 

 without bad effect. 



Occurrence in "While thus only very slight differences can be made 

 out between these two streptococci as the result of 

 cultivations and of experiments on animals, they 

 apparently differ to a marked degree in their action on 

 man. Strept. pyogenes is present in about the half of 

 all kinds of suppuration, while the streptococci of ery- 

 sipelas only occur in this relatively rare contagious 

 disease, and are able to set up this disease in healthy 



Cultivation of people. They can be best obtained, according to 



man C CC1 fr m Fehleisen, from erysipelas in man. by excising a small 

 piece of skin from the sharply defined border of an 

 erysipelas marginatum (not from the earlier affected parts, 

 in which, as a rule, no living cocci can be found), and 

 introducing it into a tube containing nutrient jelly ; the 

 tube is then kept for two hours at about 40 C., so that 

 the gelatine becomes liquid, and comes into intimate 

 contact with the piece of skin ; it is then kept at 20 C., 

 or better, the contents of the tube are poured out on a 

 glass plate in the usual manner. After two or three days, 

 numerous punctiform colonies can usually be found in 

 the neighbourhood of the piece of skin. 



Fehleisen has inoculated these cultivations on man after 



