May 29, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



805 



cific clinical or pathological significance, for the 

 purpose of placing it on record, a detailed descrip- 

 tion of the organism will be given, followed by a 

 brief review of the experimental work carried out 

 with it. 



Morphology. — Mie. "S" is a large, clearly de- 

 fined, biscuit-shaped diploooceus, sometimes ap- 

 pearing in tetrads, measuring about the size of the 

 meningococcus and gonococcus. It is non-spore- 

 bearing, non-motile, non-eapsulated, stains deeply 

 with all aniline dyes and is positive to Gram. 



Culticral Beactions 



Agar Slant. — Abundant, smooth, grayish-white, 

 glistening, opaque, filiform or slightly beaded 

 raised growth, becoming somewhat viscid within a 

 few days. 



Agar Deep. — Abundant, filiform, growth usually 

 in one plane, with a slightly spreading surface 

 growth. 



Agar Colony. — Slow-growing, round, smooth, 

 convex, entire, coarsely granular colony. 



Bouillon. — Slight growth, clear with sediment. 



Potato. — Very slight, colorless growth. 



Litmus Milk. — No change. 



Koch's Serum. — Slight, filiform, white growth. 



Loeffler's Serum. — Abundant, filiform, smooth, 

 glistening, pinkish white growth. 



Gelatin Stab. — Gradual stratiform liquefaction. 

 In about five days a cup forms at the surface and 

 as liquefaction increases it reaches the sides of the 

 tube and then proceeds downwards. At the end of 

 six weeks, the medium is liquefied about half way 

 down. 



Indol negative. 



Litmus Sugars. — Glucose, maltose and saccharose 

 gave an acid reaction; galactose, levulose and lac- 

 tose, no change. 



Pathogenic Powers 



While extensive inoculation experiments were 

 carried out with this organism, nothing of any spe- 

 cial specific significance could be gleaned from th8 

 work. Whether the organism soon loses its viru- 

 lence on artificial culture media, or whether it is 

 devoid of all pathogenic properties for the animals 

 used, is a question which was undecided. Believ- 

 ing, nevertheless, that this organism was found in 

 a large enough proportion of cases to warrant 

 further work, irrespective of the apparently nega- 

 tive pathogenicity, several vaccines were prepared 

 with it which have been fairly tested out, both 

 prophylactieally and therapeutically under the 

 supervision of Dr. Schultze in New York and Dr. 

 Kiefer in Detroit, which work will be reported in 

 later communications by them. 



Other observers have, from time to time, noted 

 the presence of a large diplococcus in cultures and 

 smears from the throats of scarlatina cases, and 



yet no one has succeeded in proving that it has any 

 part to play in the disease and, therefore, very 

 little stress has been laid on the findings. The or- 

 ganism described by these writers is so varied in 

 its morphology and cultural characteristics that 

 one is inclined to one of two suppositions. Either 

 it is extremely polymorphous, as was claimed by 

 Class, or else they were dealing with cultures con- 

 taining streptococci, which organisms may often 

 be seen, in smears from the throat directly or from 

 cultures, as large diplococci. 



From the experience of the writer with the or- 

 ganism he has isolated and named Mie. " S, " 

 which tallies with the general descriptions given 

 by Schultze, Class and others, as seen in smears it 

 is quite essential not only to plate the cultures, but 

 to be absolutely certain that the colonies from 

 which the cultures are taken have no small colonies 

 of streptococci, either deep or superficial, adjacent 

 to or near them. This can only be ascertained by 

 examining the field with a lens. Among the several 

 known organisms found in the throat, from which 

 the Mie. " S " should be differentiated, the follow- 

 ing are the most important. 



Mie. catarrhalis. 



Mie. tetragenus. 



Mie. pharyngis siccus. 



Dip. intracellularis meningitidis. 



Studies in Avian Tuberculosis: L. E. Himmel- 



BERGER. 



Cultures of the avian tubercle bacilli were grown 

 on sterile banana and glycerinated slants of car- 

 rots, turnips and garden beets. The different char- 

 acter of the growths obtained on the different 

 media, would suggest the use of these vegetables 

 as differentiating media. Attempts were made to 

 infect white rats, under conditions simulating co- 

 habitation with tuberculous chickens and guinea- 

 pigs and rabbits by injection of pure cultures sub- 

 cutaneously and intravenously (in rabbits) without 

 success. Two calves were infected by the ingestion 

 of mascerated tubercular organs of chickens while 

 in one an attempt at infection by ingestion was 

 unsuccessful. The calves were tuberculin tested 

 previous to infection and came from a cow which 

 had given no actions to the tuberculin test, and 

 were fed from a herd free from tuberculosis as 

 indicated by repeated tuberculin tests. The calves 

 which were infected gave reactions to tuberculin 

 prepared from the avian organisms and on autopsy 

 lesions of tuberculosis were found. It is regret- 

 table that we were not able to isolate this organism. 

 The agglutination test was tried on a limited num- 

 ber of birds both normal and diseased. In only 



