250 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Streptococcus pyogenes.* — Prof. E. M. Crooksliank describes a 
micro-organism which he has found in acute cases of suppuration, and 
which appears to possess great resemblance to that found by Klein in 
scarlet fever and diphtheria. The identity of St. pyogenes with St. 
erysipelatosus is discussed, and the author inclines to the belief that 
though similar in many respects, they are not the same. 
Bacillus capsulatns mucosus, a new Capsule Bacillus.! — Er. M. 
Fasching describes a capsule bacillus which he obtained from the nasal 
secretion of two cases of severe influenza. The bacilli are 3—4 p. long and 
about 3/4-1 fj. thick. They are enveloped in a capsule which may inclose 
one to four individuals. Sections stained with phenol-methylen-blue 
showed that the microphytes were strictly confined to the blood vessels, 
from which it followed that the affection was a true septicaemia, though 
in one case the inoculation was followed by suppuration of one extremity 
(mouse). In the pus examined great variations of shape were observed 
in the micro-organisms, aud as Gram’s method failed to demonstrate the 
presence of ordinary pyogenic microbes, and as from the pus were 
recultivated the typical bacillus possessing its proper physiological 
functions, it seemed probable that the suppuration was due to some 
aberration on the part of the micro-organism or its environment. 
The bacillus was pathogenic to white and field mice, which died in two 
or three days after inoculation ; pigeons and rabbits were quite re- 
fractory to the virus and the experiments on guinea-pigs were 
inconclusive. 
The microbe was isolated on plates which contained 10 per cent, 
gelatin and 1 per cent, grape-sugar. Circular milky non-liquefying 
colonies developed. Their upper surface was cupped, and they exhaled 
a faint aromatic odour. To the naked eye their appearance resembled 
so many drops of mucus about the size of pins’ heads. Puncture culti- 
vations soon assumed the nail-like appearance, and there was a forma- 
tion of gas. From stroke cultivations a mucoid deposit was obtained. 
This was insoluble in water ; swelled up on heating, imparting au 
opalescence to the fluid ; was precipitated by alcohol and acetic acid ; 
was redissolved by strong mineral acids and by alkalies ; in fact, gave the 
same reactions as mucus. The gelatin was never stained or discoloured. 
Cultivations were also made in 1 per cent, agar on potato, on meat- 
pepton-grape-sugar-gelatin stained with litmus, and with Petruschky’s 
litmus-medium. From the latter the fact was determined that at first 
a small quantity of acid was formed, though afterw r ards alkali. 
The organism was also cultivated anaerobically. It was easily 
stained by aqueous solutions of anilin dyes, but was decoloured by 
Gram’s method. No movements were observed in hanging drops. 
It does not form spores. It grows extremely well from lS’-Sb 3 C. It 
was found to be extremely pathogenic to mice, which usually succumbed 
in 36-48 hours. All the animals suffered from conjunctivitis, and 
the post-mortem appearances were those of fever. 
The author, in conclusion, notes that there are other capsule bac- 
teria, some of which closely resemble B. capsulatus mucosus ; these are 
* Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk., x. (1891) p. 648. 
t SB. K. Akad. Wiss. Wien, c. (1891) pp. 295-309. 
