48 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE. [CHAP. 



them, to reproduce the disease. This essential link in the 

 evidence is, however, still wanting. 1 



2. Micrococcus erysipelatosus. The micrococcus is very 

 minute, smaller than that of vaccinia. Lukomsky 2 showed 

 that, at the margin of an erysipelatous zone, that is the part 

 where the disease is progressing and marked by the character- 

 istic redness and swelling, the lymphatics of the skin are 

 iilled with zooglcea of micrococci, and the injection of these 

 vessels keeps pace with the progress of the erysipelatous 

 process. Oth 3 cultivated these micrococci artificially, and 

 with such cultures produced by inoculation erysipelas in 

 rabbits. Fehleisen 4 placed this beyond any doubt, inasmuch 

 as he produced successive cultures of these micrococci (derived 

 from the lymphatics of erysipelatous human skin), and then 

 by re-inoculation produced" the disease not only in rabbits but 

 also in man. Fehleisen found the micrococci only in the 

 lymphatics of the affected parts, and these he cultivated 

 artificially for fourteen generations which it took two months 

 to do on peptonised meat-extract gelatine, and solid serum. 

 The micrococci form a whitish film on the top of the nourish- 

 ing material, and when inoculated into the skin (ear) of 

 rabbits, a characteristic erysipelatous rash makes its appear- 

 ance after from thirty-six to forty-eight hours, and spreads to 

 the root of the ear, and further on to the head and neck. The 

 animals do not, however, die from it. In the human subject 

 he produced typical erysipelas after inoculation with the pure 

 cultivated micrococcus in fifteen to sixty hours. These 

 inoculations were justifiable because they were undertaken 

 with a view to cure certain tumours. Thus one case of lupus, 

 one case of cancer, one case of sarcoma, were considerably 

 affected, and to the good of the patient. 



Fehleisen also in several instances carried out successfully a 

 second inoculation within a few months. The same observer 

 also found that a 3 per cent, solution of carbolic acid and a 1 

 per cent, solution of corrosive sublimate destroys the vitality 

 of this micrococcus. 



3. Micrococcus dipJiiheriticus. Buhl, Hiiter, and Oertel had 

 shown that in diphtheria the membranes include micrococci. 

 Oertel 5 found this micrococcus in large numbers, not only in 



1 See the prize announcement of the Grocers' Company, London, 1883. 



2 Virch. Archiv, vol. 60. 3 Archivf. exp. Path. Bd. i 1874. 

 * Die Aetiologie d. Erysipels, Berlin, 1883. 



5 " TCxperim. Unters. liber Diphtheric," Deutsches Archiv f. Jclin. Med. Bd. 

 viii. 1871. 



