DIFFERENT KINDS OF PUS-MICROBES. 83 



individual cocci are irregular in shape, and larger than the staphy- 

 lococci. In all cases in which this microbe is the sole cause of the 

 suppuration, the process appears to have been not attended by any 

 very severe inflammatory symptoms, and little or no general febrile 

 disturbances. Rosenbach made no experiments to test its patho- 

 genic properties in animals. 



This microbe was never found by anyone else but Rosenbach 

 until February, 1888, when Raskina (Transactions of Russian 

 Medical Association, 1889, p. 327) isolated it from the pus and 

 organs in a case of scarlatina complicated with pyaemia, which 

 proved fatal on the eighteenth day of the commencement of the 

 primary disease. At the necropsy multiple miliary abscesses were 

 found in the kidneys at the junction of cortex and medullary por- 

 tion. From these the micrococcus pyogeues tennis was obtained 

 in a state of pure cultivation, and from the parenchymatous portion 

 of the kidney a diplococcus of unknown species was cultivated. 

 Inoculations of rabbits with a pure culture of the micrococcus 

 gave negative results, even though the coccus was present in the 

 blood twenty-four hours after inoculation, hence it is problematical 

 as to its being a pyogenic microbe. Like the staphylococcus 

 cereus, it probably belongs to the so-called metabiotic microbes of 

 Garre, occurring secondarily after suppuration has been established 

 by genuine pyogenic microbes. 



8. STREPTOCOCCUS PYOGENES. Cocci singly, or arranged in 

 chains often of great length, Fig. 2 (Roseubach). Cultures grow 

 very slowly on ordinary nutrient media at 

 the summer temperature, but with greater 

 rapidity at the temperature of the body. O H 



Cultivated in a streak on the surface of gela- r 'V** ? *' w 

 tin on a glass plate, this microbe forms at /!,,:. ^ \ 

 first whitish, somewhat transparent rounded /^ V 



spots, of the size of small grains of sand. On 

 nutrient agar-agar it grows most energetically 



at a temperature of 35-37 C. (95 c -98.6 V,f ' 



F.). Even if the inoculation is made with 



' ni . ,. , , Streptococcus pyo2;enes. 



a needle in a continuous line, the culture (ROSENBACH) 



appears in small dots. In its further growth, 



the culture is elevated in the centre, and presents a pale brownish 

 color, while the periphery is flattened, except at the extreme margin, 

 which is again raised, and often with a spotted appearance. Still 

 later, the periphery develops successive layers or terraces. The 

 growth is so slow that in two or three weeks the maximum width 

 of the culture-streak is about two or three millimetres. In a 

 vacuum, peptonizatiou of albumen and beef takes place rapidly. 

 In the subcutaneous tissue of rabbits in small quantities they cause 



