72 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE. [CHAP. 



Fehleisen also in several instances carried out successfully a 

 second inoculation within a few months. The same observer 

 also found that a 3 per cent, solution of carbolic acid and 

 a i per cent, solution of corrosive sublimate destroys the 

 vitality of this micrococcus. 



3. Micrococcus diphtheriticus. Buhl, Hiiter, and Oertel 

 had shown that in diphtheria the membranes include 

 micrococci. Oertel l found this micrococcus in large 

 numbers, not only in the diphtheritic membranes of the 

 organs of the throat and in their neighbourhood as well as 

 in the surrounding lymphatics, but also in the blood of the 

 general circulation, in the kidney, and in the muscles. The 



FIG. 23. PORTION OF A DIPHTHERITIC MEMBRANE. 

 Numerous micrococci present. 



micrococci are about 0*00035 too'ooi mm. in diameter, are 

 slightly oval, occur singly or in dumb-bells or in short chains ; 

 they form also continuous masses of zooglcea in the shape 

 of spherical or cylindrical clumps, and as such they 

 penetrate and destroy the surrounding connective and 

 muscular tissues. In severe cases they are found blocking 

 up the capillaries of the glomeruli and the uriniferous tubules 

 of the kidney. 



Besides micrococci there occur in the diphtheritic mem- 

 branes also other (rod-shaped) bacteria, but these are evidently 



1 "Experim. Unters. iiber Diphtheric," Deutsches Archiv f. klin. 

 Med. Bd. viii. 1871. 



