MEASLES 561 



ism forms a thick, white, shining growth. In stab agar the growth 

 has a " nail-shaped " appearance. The colonies on agar are at 

 first round, but later, in seven days, they throw out lateral pro- 

 jections and assume a rosette appearance. On gelatin the growth 

 is slow and slight, with some, but not marked, liquefaction. On 

 blood-serum the growth resembles that on agar. On potato a 

 whitish, semi-transparent film forms. Milk is curdled. In brotlj 

 it causes a general turbidity, with a whitish sediment, and some- 

 times a pellicle, which soon sinks. Guinea-pigs and mice inoculated 

 or vaccinated with the organism died in four to eight days, fine 

 haemorrhage, occurring in the lungs, and the cocci being obtained 

 from the blood. No bullae appeared on the skin. The B. pyo- 

 cyaneus may cause dermatitis and bullous eruptions (see p. 239). 



The pyogenic cocci or their toxins may produce various bullous 

 eruptions, e.g. pemphigus neonatorum and contagiosus and hydroa 

 gestationis. 1 



Herpes zoster. Pfeffer observed bodies in the cells of the vesicles 

 which he believed to be protozoa. Gilchrist, however, regards 

 these merely as altered nuclei. 



FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. Various organisms have been 

 described in this disease, but a German commission comprising 

 Loffler and Abel 2 stated that they were unable to prove its etio- 

 logical significance. Lofiler and Frosch have determined that the 

 organism must be a very minute one, as it passes through the 

 smallest- pored porcelain filter. 



MASTOID DISEASE. See " Otitis Media." 



MEASLES. Doehle and Behla described small flagellated bodies 

 which they believed to be protozoa in this disease. Canon and 

 Pielicke found small bacilli in the blood, which Tchaikovsky con- 

 firmed. They are motile, do not stain by Gram's method, and 

 can be cultivated on agar and serum, on which they form delicate 

 colonies. Czajkowski has found a similar organism. Lesage 3 

 cultivated a small micrococcus from the nasal mucus and blood, 

 which produced a fatal haemorrhagic septicaemia in animals. The 

 influenza bacillus is present in many cases. The organism is 

 probably a filter-passer. 



MENINGITIS may be caused by S. pneumonice (60 per cent, of 

 acute cases), D. intracellularis, Still's diplococcus, B. tuberculosis, 

 gonococcus, and micrococci and streptococci. 



MUMPS (EPIDEMIC PAROTITIS). Mecray and Walsh isolated from 



1 Brit. Med. Journ., 1902, vol. i, p. 73. 



2 Centr. f. Bakt., xxiii, 1898, March. 



3 Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol, 1900, p. 203. 



36 



