On Micrococcus Pasteuri. Btj Dr. G. M. Sternberg. 393 



Here I fall into the same mistake which Mr, Dowdeswell has made, 

 in assuming that the infectious disease which resulted from such 

 injections is identical with that which I have described, and that it 

 is due to the same micro-organism. 



My own earlier experiments showed that there is a difference in 

 the pathogenic potency of the saliva of different individuals, and I 

 have since learned that the saliva of the same individual may differ 

 in this respect at different times. Thus during the past three years 

 injections of my own saliva have not infrequently failed to cause a fatal 

 result, and in fatal cases death is apt to occur after a somewhat 

 longer interval, 72 hours or more ; whereas in my earlier experi- 

 ments the animals almost infallibly died within 48 hours. This 

 difference is also shown by the experiments of Clapton * and of 

 Frankel.t The results obtained by these observers are entirely in 

 accord with those which I had previously reported, and show that 

 the buccal sei^- ' tions of healthy individuals in various parts of the 

 world contain this micrococcus, but that it is not uniformly present 

 in these secretions ; or, if so, that it has not in ail cases that degree 

 of pathogenic power which is required to insure a fatal result when 

 it is introduced beneath the skin of a rabbit. 



Kecent experiments have shown that this micrococcus is usually, 

 if not uniformly, present in the sputum of patients suffering from 

 pneumonia, and that the rusty sputum characteristic of this disease, 

 when injected beneath the skin of a rabbit, induces the form of 

 septicaemia which I have described with greater certainty than does 

 the injection of the buccal secretions of persons in health. I can- 

 not in the present paper go into details with reference to this 

 interesting and significant fact, nor would it be proper here to 

 discuss the etiological question involved. I must refer the reader 

 who is especially interested in this question to my papers published 

 in the ' American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 'J and especially 

 to a paper which will appear in the next number of that Journal 

 (July 1886). Also to the recent paper of Frankel,§ and to the 

 experiments of Zalamon, || and of Salvioli, 1[ who have injected 

 pneumonic exudate into rabbits, with results which are identical 

 with those obtained by me in experimental injections of the same 

 material, and of my own saliva. 



In my paper above referred to (July 1885) I have given the 

 name M. Pasteuri to this micrococcus, which has so long occupied 

 my attention. In the same paper I make the mistake of assuming 

 the identity of this micrococcus with that described by Friedlander, 

 and generally known as the " pneumonia-coccus of Friedlander." 



» Medical Times (Philad.), June 17, 1882, pp. 627-31. 



t Zeitschr. f. Klin. Med., x. (1886) pp. 401-61. I July and October 1885. 



§ Op. cit. II Progres Me'dicale, 1883, No. 51. 



t Arch, per le Scienze Med., viii. (1884) No. 7. 



Ser. 2.— Vol. YI. 2 D 



