130 ERYSIPELAS. 



sipelas. With a pure culture of this germ he produced by inocu- 

 lation, not only only erysipelas in animals to prove its specific 

 pathogenic qualities, but inoculations were also made in man for 

 therapeutic purposes. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE STREPTOCOCCUS ERYSIPELATOSUS. 

 Minute cocci, three to four micro-millimetres in diameter, arranged 

 in chains, found in erysipelatous skin and in the fluid of erysipe- 

 latous bullse. They occupy the lymphatic channels of the skin 

 and spread along them as the disease advances. Each coccus 

 when it is about to divide becomes larger and oval, and soon 

 appears made up of two hemispherical masses, the two new cocci 

 resulting from fission of the old one. Morphologically, the strep- 

 tococcus of erysipelas and the streptococcus pyogenes are nearly 

 identical, only that the coccus of erysipelas is somewhat larger, and 

 both are somewhat smaller than the staphylococci. 



CULTIVATION EXPERIMENTS. The streptococcus of erysipelas 

 can be cultivated upon gelatin or agar-agar. The appearances of 

 cultures resemble very strongly those of streptococcus pyogenes. 

 There is less tendency, however, to the formation of terraces, the 

 margin is thicker and more irregular in outline, and the appear- 

 ance of the growth is more opaque and whiter. Rosenbach men- 

 tions as another distinguishing feature between the two, that the 

 culture of the coccus of erysipelas represents upon solid nutrient 

 media the shape of a fern, while the outlines of the cultures of the 

 pus streptococcus describe the shape of an acacia leaf. 



The culture appears as a very delicate grayish-white film. The 

 growth is very slow, and the individual colonies remain small. 

 They do not liquefy gelatin. 



INOCULATION EXPERIMENTS. The characteristic erysipelatous 

 blush is produced by inoculating these microorganisms into the ear 

 of a rabbit. 



Krause obtained positive results by inoculating gray mice. 

 The animals died after three or four days, even when only a minute 

 quantity of the culture was injected under the skin of the back. 

 Passet inoculated white mice that had been liberally fed on bread, 

 milk, and oats, and obtained only negative results. Of seven 

 persons inoculated by Fehleisen ( u Ueber die Zuchtung der Ery- 

 sipelcoccen auf kiinstlichen Niihrbodeu und ihre Uebertragbarkeit 

 auf Menschen." Sitzungsbericht der Wurzburger Physic, med. 

 G-eselhcha/t, 1882) the subjects of incurable tumors, with pure 

 cultures, six developed typical erysipelas ; in the seventh case, the 

 patient had suffered from an attack of erysipelas only a few weeks 

 previously, and was, in all probability, still protected against a 

 new attack. This patient was inoculated a second time with a 

 negative result. Several times a second inoculation failed after a 



