A NEW MICROCOCCUS 
WITH A NOTE ON THE BACTERIOLOGY OF LYMPHADENOMA* 
From the Pathological Laboratory, University College Liverpool. 
By JOHN HILL ABRAM, M.D., M.R.C.P., Assistant Physician, Royal Infirmary; 
Senior Demonstrator of Pathology, University College Liverpool 
Plate XII 
I have lately had a case of lymphadenoma under my care, in which I have made a 
bacteriological examination of the blood during life. I have long felt that the ordinary method of 
obtaining blood for this purpose is unsatisfactory, and I adopted the following method, which was, 
I believe, first recommended by Sittmann. The skin of the forearm was sterilized by packing 
with a towel soaked in i to lOOO perchloride of mercury for two hours, and then the needle of a 
hypodermic syringe (sterilized by boiling for five minutes) was thrust into one of the 
superficial veins. In this way a fair quantity of blood can be obtained without causing more 
than momentary pain. 
Plates were made in the usual manner. Fourteen colonies developed in a single plate, the 
majority being pure growths of Staphylococcus albus. In addition to these there were three colonies 
of an organism having the following characteristics : — 
,. Incubat. 
Medium. „ 
1 emp. 
Gelatine plate - - 21" C. Slow growth. Colony circular, surface finely granular, 
margin regular. Slow liquefaction, 
stab - - ... Growth faster at surface than in depth. Slow lique- 
faction reaching wall of tube in 6 days. 
Agar plate - - 37" C. Fairly rapid growth on surface, colony round, regular 
edges. 
„ stroke - - ... Growth fairly rapid, is slimy and resembles a streak of 
white paint. 
Potato - - - ... Good growth. Culture raised, dark red, no staining 
of potato substance. 
Milk - - - ... No coagulation. 
Broth - - - ... Abundant growth ; powdery sediment. 
Litmus agar - - ... Medium turns red. 
Glucose gelatine - 21° C. No gas formation. 
Microscopically the organism is a small micrococcus, aggregated in clumps. It stains well 
by the ordinary methods ; it is not stained by Gram's method ; it is non-motile. Inoculation 
* From the 'Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology.' 
