VIL] MICROCOCCUS. 49 



the diphtheritic membranes of the organs of the throat and in 

 their neighbourhood as well as in the surrounding lymphatics, 

 but also in the blood of the general circulation, in the kidney, 

 and in the muscles. The micrococci are about (V00035 O'OOl 

 mm. in diameter, are slightly oval, occur singly or in dumb- 



Fio. 20. PORTION OF A DIPHTHERITIC MEMBRANE. 

 Numerous micrococci present. 



bells or in short chains ; they form also continuous masses 

 of zoogloea in the shape of spherical or cylindrical clumps, and 

 as such they penetrate and destroy the surrounding connective 

 and muscular tissues. In severe cases they are found blocking 

 up the capillaries of the glomeruli and the uriniferous tubules 

 of the kidney. 



Besides micrococci there occur in the diphtheritic membranes 

 also other (rod-shaped) bacteria, but these are evidently only 

 accessory. 1 Cultivations and inoculations with pure cultivations 

 of this micrococcus are still wanting. 



4. Micrococcus pneumonia. In acute croupous pneumonia 

 there occur in the affected lungs large numbers of micrococci ; 

 Klebs, Eberth, Koch, Leyden, and others have seen them, 

 but Friedlander 2 first pointed out their constant occurrence. 

 According to this observer they are oval, of an oval nail-like 

 shape, about O'OOl mm. long, and OCCIIT in the sputum singly, 

 but especially as dumb-bells or diplococci, as chains, and as 

 zooglcea. Ziehl 3 found them in very large crowds in the 

 sputum, giving to this in the early stages the peculiar character- 

 istic brownish " prune-juice " tint. But this statement cannot 

 be correct, since this tint may be very pronounced although 

 the sputum contains only a limited number of the micrococci. 

 According to this observer they are very numerous only in the 

 beginning of the illness ; after the critical stage they decrease 

 in numbers. 



1 Compare also Klebs, Arehiv f. exjt. Pnth. iv. ; Let7erich, Virchain'x Archiv, 

 vol. 68 ; Nassiloff, ib. vol. 50 ; Eberth, Zvr Kenntnis* d. baet. Mycosen, 1&72 ; 

 Wood and Fonnad, Rep. of Nat. B. of Health, U.S.A. 1--2. 



3 Yirclww's Archiv, vol. b7. 3 Centralb. f. med. Wist. No. 25, 18S3 



