Staphylococcus Pyogenes Aureus et Albus 307 



from the streaming blood, though the greater number collect in, 

 and frequently obstruct, the capillaries. In the lungs and spleen, 

 and still more frequently in the kidneys, infarcts are formed by the 

 bacterial emboli. The Malpighian tufts of the kidneys are sometimes 

 full of cocci, and become the centers of small abscesses. 



It enters the human system through scratches, punctures, or 

 abrasions, and when virulent usually occasions an abscess. 



Staphylococcus aureus is not only found in the great majority 

 of furuncles, carbuncles, abscesses, and other inflammatory dis- 

 eases of the surface of the body, but also plays an important r6le in 

 a number of deeply seated diseases. Becker and others obtained it 

 from the pus of osteomyelitis, demonstrating that if, after fracturing 

 or crushing a bone, the staphylococcus be injected into the circu- 

 lation, osteomyelitis may occur. Numerous observers have demon- 

 strated its presence in ulcerative endocarditis. Rodet has been 

 able to produce osteomyelitis- without previous injury to the bones; 

 Rosenbach was able to produce ulcerative endocarditis by injecting 

 some of the staphylococci into the circulation in animals whose 

 cardiac valves had been injured by a sound passed into the carotid 

 artery; and Ribbert has shown that the injection of cultures of the 

 organism may cause valvular lesions without preceding injury. 



Virulence. — Experiments have shown that both Staphylococci 

 aureus and albus exist in attenuated and virulent forms, and there 

 is every reason to believe that in the majority of instances they in- 

 habit the surface of the body in a feebly virulent condition. 



Agglutination. — Kolle and Otto* have found that immune anti- 

 staphylococcic serums agglutinate the staphylococci. The reaction 

 is not specific and is peculiar. All pathogenic staphylococci are 

 agglutinated; non-pathogenic cocci are not agglutinated. The 

 reaction cannot, therefore, be used for specific differentiation. 



Specific Therapy. — The treatment of staphylococcus infections 

 with immune serum has not met with encouraging success. Vi- 

 querat,tDenysandvan de Velde,J and Neisser and Wechsberg§ and 

 others have experimented in this direction, but the literature 

 contains very little evidence that beneficial results have followed the 

 employment of antistaphylococcus serums. 



Bacterio-vaccination. — ^Although specific serums have failed, a 

 promising form of specific treatment for subacute and chronic 

 staphylococcic infections has been introduced by A. E. Wright,|| 

 who first isolates from the lesion the particular strain of staph- 

 ylococci by which it is caused, cultivates this artificially, suspends 

 the organisms in an indifferent fluid, of which a given quantity con- 

 tains a known (counted) number, kills the organisms by heating them 



* "Zeitschrif t fur Hygiene," etc., 1902, XLi. 



Tibid., xvni, 1804, p. 48^. 



t;;La Cellule," 189s, XI. 



8 ^^'Zeitschrift fur Hygiene," 1901, xxxii. 



II Lancet," March 29, 1902, p. 874; " Brit. Med. Jour.," May 9, 1903, p. 1069. 



