196 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE MICRO-ORGANISMS. 



on other mice succeed with the minutest quantities of 

 blood or splenic juice. In rabbits after inoculation on 

 the ear there occurs in the first instance a local redness, 

 then a general disease, and death after 2 or 3 days. 

 In the internal organs a marked accumulation of micro- 

 cocci is found everywhere, at times leading to plugging 

 of the vessels and the formation of necrotic foci. This 

 tendency to the formation of foci leads in the case of 

 rabbits to transmission of the coccus to the foetus, as 

 shown by Oberdiek ; * nevertheless in the latter there 

 are always markedly fewer micrococci, because the lesion 

 of the placental tissue evidently occurs only towards the 

 termination of the life of the mother. 



Comparison 

 and distinc- 

 tion of the 

 various 

 streptococci. 



In connection with the species of streptococci just 

 described we meet with the striking fact that five 

 organisms, scarcely distinguishable from each other 

 microscopically or by cultivation, are so markedly different 

 in their action on man and the lower animals. The 

 resemblances on the one hand, and the differences in 

 pathogenic effect on the other, have been accurately 

 ascertained by Guarneri in a special series of experi- 

 ments in which particular attention was paid to any 

 possible deception or confusion. More especially any 

 possible immunity of the animals as the cause of the 

 inefficiency of the pyogenic and erysipelas streptococci 

 was excluded, because the same animals which had 

 resisted one or several inoculations with the Strept. 

 pyog. without effect, at once died from inoculation with 

 Strept. pyog. malign us. 



From this result we may assume that streptococci of 

 very different virulence occur in the various infective 

 diseases of wounds in man, and that the symptoms and 

 the result of the disease caused by streptococci are due 

 not only to the mode of invasion, or the functions of the 

 organs attacked, but also to the specific characters of 

 the organism. In order to recognise the latter it is 



* G6tting2r hygien. Institut. 



