VIL] MICROCOCCUS. 43 



mm. in diameter, and are composed of small spherical 

 micrococci Cohn found them also in his (Cohn's) nourishing 

 fluid (see Chapter II. A. 7) where they produce the peculiar 

 smell of cheese. They are capable of changing acid nourish- 

 ing material into alkaline. Cohn called the organism 

 ascococcus Billrothi. 



Sarcina ventriculi. Goodsir was the first to describe in the 

 vomit of some patients, peculiar groups of four cubical cells^ 

 with rounded edges, and closely placed against one another. 

 These sarcince ventriculi are of a greenish or reddish colour. 

 The diameter of the individual cells is about O004 mm. 

 They are found in the contents of the stomach of man and 

 brutes in health and disease, where the groups of four cells 

 form smaller and larger aggregations. Occasionally small 

 sarcinse occur on boiled potatoes, egg albumen, and gelatine 

 exposed to the air. These sarcinse are considerably smaller 

 than the sarcina ventriculi, and when in large quantities have a 

 yellowish tinge. Like the sarcina ventriculi they are in groups 

 of four, and these again occur in larger or smaller aggregations 

 and zoogloea. I have cultivated them successfully through 

 many generations in pork broth, beef broth, mixture of 

 gelatine and broth, at ordinary temperatures and in the 

 incubator ; more easily however at ordinary temperatures. 



(d) Pathogenic micrococci. Many of these are connected 

 with disease. In the pus of open wounds, 1 and in that of 

 closed abscesses, occur inicrococci, singly, in dumb-bells, and 

 in colonies or short chains. 2 but there are certain acute 

 inflammations, e.g. that produced by subcutaneous injection of 

 turpentine, the pus of which does not contain micrococci or 

 any other organism. 3 



The secretion of open ulcers, such as occur in ordinary acute 

 inflammations of the skin and mucous membranes, in ulcer- 

 ations of the throat due to scarlatina, in every ulceration of the 

 intestinal mucous membrane, in the lymph of the vesicles of 

 the skin and mucous membranes of the mouth occurring in 

 various kinds of inflammations, there are almost always 

 present micrococci in dumb-bells, often also in beautiful 

 chains. In the ulcers and abscesses they often form continuous 

 masses, i.e. zooglrea, encroaching upon the tissue of the base of 

 the ulcer. To this category belong the minute micrococci 



1 W. Cheyne, PntJi, Transact, xxx. 



2 Ogston, " Micrococcus in Acute Abscesses," Br. Med. Journal, March 12, 



t-s;. 



3 Uskoff, Vircliow'* Archiv, vol 86, i. p. 150. 



