CHAPTER XVII. 



Sputum septicsemia — Septiceemia resulting from the presence of micro- 

 coccus tetragenus in the tissues. 



Obtain from a tuberculous patient a sample of fresh 

 sputum — that of the morning is preferable. Spread 

 it in a thin layer upon a black glass plate and select 

 one of the small, white, cheesy masses or dense mu- 

 cous clumps scattered through it. With a pointed 

 forceps smear this carefully upon two or three thin 

 cover-slips, dry and fix them in the way given for 

 ordinary cover-slip preparations. Stain one in the 

 ordinary way with LoiHer's alkaline methylene-blue 

 solution, one other by the Gram method, and a third 

 after the method given for tubercle bacilli in fluids or 

 sputum. 



In that stained by LoiSer's method — slip No. 1 — 

 will be seen a great variety of organisms — round cells, 

 ovals, short and long rods, perhaps spiral forms. But 

 not infrequently will be seen diplococci having more 

 or less of a lancet shape, joined together by their 

 broad ends, the points of the lancet being away from 

 the point of juncture of the two cells. There may 

 also be seen masses of cocci which are conspicuous by 

 their arrangement into groups of fours, the adjacent 

 surfaces being somewhat flattened. They are not sar- 

 cina, as one can see by the absence of the division in 

 the third direction of space — they divide in only two 

 directions. 



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