CHAPTER III 

 THE LIDS 



THE bacteriology of the lids is the same as that of the surrounding 

 skin. 1 Normally staphylococci are present, especially the white 

 variety, having little or no power to liquefy gelatine or produce an 

 inflammatory reaction the same Staphylococcus albus epidermidis we 

 have already noted in the conjunctival sac. The majority of the 

 cocci present are closely related to the Micrococcus candicans (see 

 ' Normal Conjunctiva '). 



There are very few records available relating to methodical examination of the lids, 

 and these require supplementing by larger series. Terson and Cuenod 2 examined 

 twenty normal lids in Panas' laboratory. The white Staphylococci obtained only 

 once produced a severe purulent keratitis. On every other occasion the infiltrate 

 at the site of inoculation healed up rapidly and spontaneously. The name petit 

 abces, which Cuenod gave to this reaction, cannot be recommended. It is doubtful 

 whether a rise in virulence may not occur (cf. p. 60), and whether the action does 

 not differ in the human cornea. 



M. Neisser and Wechsberg considered that pathogenic Staphylococci are specially 

 characterized by a hsemolytic function. In the case of five white Staphylococci, 

 grown on blood media from the skin, such was absent, and the regularity and 

 constancy of this phenomenon is still to be demonstrated. I regularly obtained 

 a haemolysis with six strains of white Staphylococci obtained from the normal 

 conjunctiva, only one of which had definite pyogenic properties. Gallenga, 

 Grifford, Bach, Brandt 3 have all found these Staphylococci; my own findings also 

 are similar. 



Yellow Staphylococci are rarer, but still are more common than on 

 the conjunctiva ; these yellow cocci, though of low virulence, generally 

 are definitely pyogenic. 



Virulent bacilli of the diphtheria group are often found on the 

 skin ; at the lid margins they regularly occur in large numbers. 



Cuenod and Terson only succeeded in cultivating such bacilli once in twenty 

 cases, but they worked with blood-serum, besides which the platinum loop (which 



1 Cf. Gotschlich, 'Handb. v. Kolle u. Wass.,' 1903, Bd. i., S. 147, ' Bakterienflora der 

 uormalen Haut.' . 



2 These de Paris, 1894, 'Bact. et Parasit. des Paupieres.' 



3 Inaug. Dissert., Wurzburg, 1895. Compare here the literature. 



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