MICROCOCCUS INTRACELLULARIS. 299 



nary analine dyes, but is decolorized by the method of 

 Gram. It is conspicuous for the irregular way in which 

 it takes up the dye, some cells in a preparation (either 

 from the exudate or from cultures) being brightly and 

 intensely colored, others being much less so, or, indeed, 

 often nearly colorless. There is also a marked variation 

 in the size of individual cocci, some being normal, others 

 being apparently swollen. These latter are often pale, 

 with a deeply staining centre, giving the appearance of 

 a coccus surrounded by a capsule. It is not improbable 

 that these are degenerated or involuted cells. The 

 irregularities here noted are more common in cultures 

 than in fresh exudates from acute cases, and more 

 common in old than in young cultures, a state of affairs 

 fully explained by the self-digestion (antolysis) that this 

 organism is known to experience under conditions of arti-^ 

 ficial cultivation. 



As seen in cultures, it is commonly arranged in pairs 

 with the individuals flattened at the surfaces of juxtapo- 

 sition. Sometimes it is seen grouped as four and occa- 

 sionally as short chains of three or four cells, but never 

 as long chains. Its size is that of the common pyogeuic 

 micrococci, and its outline and arrangement in the pus- 

 cells are so like those of the gonococcus that the figure 

 depicting gonorrhoeal pus answers equally well to illus- 

 trate the appearance of the exudate from acute menin- 

 gitis. 



While a facultative saprophyte, still its parasitic 

 nature is so dominant that it can only be cultivated 

 with difficulty and uncertainty. The most satisfactory 

 medium for its isolation in pure culture from the dis- 

 eased meninges is cogulated blood-serum (Loffler's 

 mixture), and even here one is not successful with each 



