220 APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY 



paper in the Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology , vol. iii., 

 November, 1894. Little or no growth takes place in meat- 

 broth that has not been peptonised. In broth cultures 

 the organisms grow out lengthwise into chains of 30 or 

 40 elements, of which the individual cocci may vary very 

 much in size, both large and small cocci being found in one 

 chain. It also sometimes happens that a new chain starts 

 away from one of the cocci in a chain, thus producing 

 branching. The variation in the size of the cocci is also 

 noticed in cultures on other media. 



The growth on gelatine is slow; the colonies are generally 

 small and discrete, while on agar at 37° C. the colonies are 

 often larger, and sometimes spread into a connected mass, 

 particularly if the agar is moist. When grown in broth the 

 virulence is rapidly reduced, but may be restored by passing 

 through an animal. In stab or shake culture in gelatine, 

 the colonies appear as small whitish spheres, but the 

 gelatine is never liquefied. Sternberg finds the thermal 

 death-point of the organism to lie between 62° and 54° C. 



Occurrence and Distribution. — The disease is less frequent 

 ■in the tropics than in temperate latitudes, and is found in 

 cold climates such as Iceland and Greenland. The greatest 

 number of deaths in this country occurs in the months 

 of November and January, and the least in the summer 

 months. 



Women are more susceptible than men, but the mortality 

 among them is less, while it is very high in children up to 

 the first year of life. Traumatic erysipelas is most common, 

 and probably the cases that are termed ' idiopathic ' are 

 really due to a slight traumatic injury or abrasion, so small 

 as to escape notice. This streptococcus is probably the 

 most frequent cause of puerperal fever. Predisposing 

 causes are wounds, injuries, overcrowding in surgical cases, 

 intemperance, want of proper nourishment, unhealthy and 



