148 IMPORTANT VARIETIES OF FISSION-FUNGI. 



xi, 279; Pansini, Virchow's Archiv, cxxn , 424; Banti. 

 C. B. ix, 275 ; Foa.) 



Streptococcus intracellularis. (Weichselbaum.) 

 Lehm. and Neum. 



(Plate 68, in, iv.) 



Synonym. Diplococcus intracellularis meningitidis Weichselbaum. 



Literature. Jager (Z. H. XIX, 351); Weichselbaum ( " Fortschritte 

 der Medizin," 1887, V, 573). Recent literature is comprehensively 

 reviewed by Kamen (C. B. xxiv, 545); in the latter place (as also in 

 the article by Jager) are found illustrations. 



While a number of authors for example, Bordoni-Uffreduzzi and 

 Foa; Panienski (C. B. xvm, G51) ; Henke (C. B. xxn, 59) have found 

 the Strept. lanceolatus to be the cause of cerebrospinal meningitis, and 

 others for example, Bonome have found the Strept. meningitidis 

 Bonome, which is closely related to the Strept. pyogenes, to be the 

 cause, still other authors, and especially Jager, have described as the 

 exciting agent, an organism which is indeed very closely related to the 

 Strept. lanceolatus, but which, it is said, can be clearly separated from 

 it. The statements of different authors diverge very widely as re- 

 gards details. 



The cultures are often indistinguishable morphologically from the 

 Strept. lanceolatus, but they remain alive and capable of transplanta- 

 tion for a longer time (seventeen to forty-three days). Some authors 

 found growth to occur upon potato ; many obtained even strikingly 

 luxuriant, moist, yellowish-gray cultures upon glycerin-agar, resem- 

 bling the Micr. tetragenus (68, in and iv) (Mayer, Munch, med. 

 Wochenschr., 1898, 1111), and we received such cultures from Jager 

 in December, 1896. C. Friinkel cultivated, on the contrary, an ex- 

 ceedingly delicate growth, which only grew with certainty upon agar 

 smeared with blood. Such a culture we obtained from Krai. 



The following points are asserted to be of diagnostic value: The 

 organisms, sometimes as diplococci and tetrads, sometimes as short 

 chains, lie oftentimes in groups within the pus-cells, especially also within 

 the cell nuclei. They possess more or less distinct capsules. Accord- 

 ing to the beautiful investigations of v. Hibler, the most variable path- 

 ogenic cocci and bacilli are found in the cells, so that this property is 

 not at all characteristic (C. B. XI x, 33). In smears from the pus and 

 from cultures, they sometimes stain well by Gram's method, but more 

 often poorly, and in sections are not stained (alleged contrast to the 

 Strept. pyogenes and lanceolatus). In the chain form of the organism 

 it is said to be characteristic (Jager) that the individuals are so ar- 

 ranged that the line separating the diplococci extends in the direction 

 of the chain. But as Stolz has pointed out, exactly similar pictures 

 occur in typical Strept. lanceolatus and Strept. pyogenes (C. B. XXIV, 

 337). We found such pictures exquisitely shown in a streptococcus 

 growing in a putrid mixture. With this state of affairs it is difficult 

 to consider the Strept. intracellularis a single organism, since the forms 



