NOT DESCRIBED IN SECTIONS IV. AND V. 313 



of vesical catarrh, and in the vesicles of pemphigus ; also by Frankel in the 

 vaginal secretion of children suffering from colpitis not of gonorrhoeal origin. 



Morphology. Diplococci, associated in biscuit-shaped pairs, separated by 

 a cleft, and closely resembling the gonococcus of Neisser. Cells from 0.5 to 

 1.5 n in diameter. 



Stains with the aniline colors and by Gram's method by which char- 

 acter it may be distinguished from the micrococcus of gonorrhoea. 



BiQlogical Characters. Grows at the room temperature upon the sui'face 

 of nutrient gelatin; small, grayish-white colonies appear along the line of 

 inoculation at the end of twenty-four hours, which later form a continent 

 layer, first of a pale yellow and finally of an ocherous color. In the course 

 of a few days liquefaction of the gelatin commences in the vicinity of the 

 growth. Coagulated blood serum is also liquefied by this micrococcus. 



Pathogenesis. Inoculationsuoon mucous membranes susceptible to gon- 

 orrhoeal infection are without result. But by injecting the diplococcus from 

 pure cultures, in suspension in distilled water, beneath the skin in man, 

 Bumrn obtained as a result local abscess formation abscesses varying in 

 size from that of a pigeon's egg to that of a man's fist. The diplococcus was 

 present in great numbers in the pus of these abscesses. 



17. MICROCOCCUS OF TRACHOMA (?). 



Obtained by Sattler (1885) from the contents of the trachomatous follicles 

 in cases of Egyptian ophthalmia; also by Michel (1886), who has given a 

 more exact description of this micrococcus, and has made inoculation experi- 

 ments which he believes establi-h its etiological relation to the form of oph- 

 thalmia with which it is associated (?). 



Morphology. Very small, biscuit shaped micrococci, in pairs diplococci 

 separated by a very narrow dividing line. (This description would apply 

 to some of the more common pus cocci, e.g., Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, 

 which have also been shown to consist of two hemispherical halves separated 

 by a narrow line of division.) 



Biological Characters. Grows slowly upon nutrient gelatin at the room 

 temperature, and does not liquefy this medium, upon the surface of which 

 a grayish-white, broadly extended, glistening layer is formed, which later 

 has a yellowish tint and tulip-shaped margins. Spherical colonies are formed 

 along the line of puncture, which are arranged in a linear series, like a 

 chaplet. In blood serum it grows along the line of puncture as a white, 

 band-like stripe, which subsequently spreads out in the form of white clouds. 

 The growth is more rapid upon nutrient agar or blood serum in the incu- 

 bating oven. The development upon potato is very scanty. The cultures 

 are viscid, drawing out into long threads when touched with a platinum 

 needle. This micrococcus does not grow in the absence of oxygen aerobic. 



Stains by the aniline colors and by Gram's method. 



Pathogenesis. Not pathogenic for rabbits when injected subcutaneously 

 or into the anterior chamber of the eye ; but, according to Sattler and to 

 Michel, when inoculated by puncture into the conjunctivae in man it causes 

 a follicular inflammation resulting in typical trachoma. But Michel was 

 not able to demonstrate the presence of this micrococcus in all of his cases, 

 and extensive researches made since by Baumgarten and by Kartulis (1887) 

 show that in many cases of trachoma, and even in Egyptian ophthalmia 

 (Kartulis) , it cannot be found. According to the last-named author, the viru- 

 lent ophthalmia which prevails in Egypt is gonorrhoeal in its origin, and he 

 has demonstrated the presence of the gonococcus in a large series of cases. 

 A milder, but infectious, acute catarrhal conjunctivitis is characterized by 

 the presence of a minute bacillus, resembling the bacillus of mouse septi- 

 caemia, and found in the pus cells. A third group of chronic cases with 

 trachoma, in the researches of Kartulis, failed to show the presence of Sat- 

 tler' s trachoma coccus or any other microorganisms in the contents of the 

 diseased follicles, 

 23 



