194 CLASSIFICATION OF THE MICRO-ORGANISMS. 



quantities. Rabbits, after inoculation on the ear, show 

 at first almost the same appearances as after inoculation 

 with Strept. pyog. and with Strept. erysip. ; but after 

 two or three days a general infection occurs, and death 

 follows on the fourth day ; the post-mortem appearances 

 are similar to those found in mice ; some of the joints 

 are also frequently affected, and filled with pus contain- 

 ing numerous cocci. It is probable that the Strept. 

 pyog. described by Krause, and which differed in it& 

 malignant effects on animals from the coccus isolated 

 by Rosenbach and Passet, is identical with this organism. 



Streptococcus articulorum. 



Loeffler has observed chain-forming micrococci on and 

 in the diseased mucous membrane in various forms of 

 diphtheria ; these organisms probably do not bear any 

 causal relation to the diphtheria itself, but appear to be 

 accidental accompaniments which may give rise to 

 secondary complications either local or general. If 

 these cocci are cultivated on nutrient jelly, small light 

 greyish drops, as clear as water, are noticed in about 

 three days, their borders showing with a low power small 

 curly lines composed of chains of cocci. The chains 

 may contain up to 100 individuals, some of which attract 

 attention by their size, and at times the whole of the 

 chain consists only of these large cocci ; on closer ex- 

 amination indications of transverse division can be seen 

 in these organisms. On subcutaneous inoculation or 

 injection of the cultivations into mice a considerable 

 number, more than half, of the animals usually die ; 

 streptococci are found in the spleen and in other organs. 

 After inoculation on the ear an erysipelatoid inflamma- 

 tion occurs in the case of rabbits; if, however, cultivations 

 are injected into the veins, affections of the joints occur 

 in 4 6 days, the joints becoming filled with pus con- 

 taining streptococci, and the disease in most cases 

 gradually ending in the death of the animals. Similar 

 joint affections occur in connection with the streptococci 

 already described, but here only as part of a general 



