viii] MICROCOCCI IS7 



but on growing them again on serum or in broth to which 

 a piece of boiled white of egg has been added the cultures 

 regain virulence. 



The capsulated, oval, rod-shaped, or cylindrical microbe de- 

 scribed first by Friedlander as being the cause of croupous 

 pneumonia occurs in the sputum only in a small percentage 

 of cases, certainly not more than five per cent. ; it occurs 

 also occasionally in the bronchial secretions not connected 

 with croupous pneumonia, and even in the fluid of the 

 mouth in health. This bacillus of Friedlander is most prob- 

 ably identical with the capsulated microbe of the fluid of 

 the mouth described by Sternberg. Inoculated in largish 

 quantities into the rabbit, it causes acute septicemic infection 

 and death ; in the blood and various viscera the microbe is 

 then abundantly present. 



13. Micrococcus tetragenus. — This microbe, related to 

 sarcina-like cocci, was found by Gaffky in pulmonary 

 tubercular expectoration and in the tissue of the tubercular 

 lung. It occurs in groups of four cocci surrounded 

 by a capsule. Cultivated in gelatine plates, it forms 

 already after twenty-four hours minute white dots which 

 during further incubation enlarge into prominent white moist 

 discs. In streak cultures it forms a narrow, white, sticky 

 growth along the line of inoculation. White mice are very 

 susceptible to infection by subcutaneous injection of small 

 quantities of culture. The animals begin to show illness 

 after two days and generally die after three to six days. The 

 blood and the spleen contain the microbe in large quantities. 

 Also guinea-pigs are susceptible, but less so, since as a rule a 

 local abscess is formed only, and occasionally a general 

 fatal infection. 



14. Micrococcus of acute infectious osteomyelitis. — Dr. Becker 

 has made, in the laboratory of the Berlin Imperial Sanitary 



