Identification 399 



diplococcus of Weichselbaum to be, without doubt, the specific 

 organism. 



Distribution. — ^The distribution of Diplococcus intracellularis 

 in nature is as yet not fully known. It can be found in nearly all 

 cases of epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis. What seems to be the 

 same organism has been found in the nose, in coryza, by Scherer, 

 on the conjunctiva by Carl Frankel* and Axenfeld,t and in the puru- 

 lent discharges or rhinitis and otitis by Jager. J During epidemics of 

 the disease, apparently identical organisms can be cultivated from 

 the naso-pharynx of many healthy persons. Such are called 

 "carriers," and though apparently immune to the disease themselves, 

 are supposed to aid in disseminating the cocci among others whose 

 susceptibihty causes them to fall victims to it. A careful study 

 of the distribution of the organism in the respiratory passages of, 

 carriers has been made by Herrold. § 



Fig. 137. — Meningococcus in spinal fluid (from Hiss and Zinsser, "Text-Book 

 of Bacteriology," D. Appleton & Co., Publishers). 



Morphology. — ^The micro-organism is a biscuit-shaped diplococcus 

 having a great resemblance to th« gonococcus. It measures 

 about 1 ju in diameter, but is variable in size according to its age. 

 Cocci in young growing cultures are much the same size; in old and 

 dymg cultures many are large. They are not motile, have no flag- 

 ella and no spores. No capsules occur about the organisms. 



Like the gonococcus the cocci are usually to be found in the cy- 

 toplasm of polymorphonuclear cells in the exudate of the inflamed 

 membranes. Occasional free cocci are also found. It was the com- 

 ■ mon occurrence of the cocci in the phagocytes that led Weichselbaum 

 to name the organism Diplococcus intracellularis. Many of the cocci 

 inclosed in the cells are apparently dead and degenerated, as they 



* "Zeitschrift fiir Hygiene," June 14, 1899. 



fLubarsch and Oestertag, "Ergebnisse der allg. Path. u. path. Anat.," in, 



573- 



{"Deutsche med. Wochenschrift," 1894, S. 407. 



§"Jour. Amer. Med. Asso.," Jan. 12, 1918, lxx, 82. 



