STREFTOCOCCI IN COMPARATIVE PATHOLOGY. 
851 
kindness of Dr. Fish I had the privilege of making the post¬ 
mortem. There was considerable purulent discharge from the 
conjunctive. The left lung was collapsed and part of it in a 
state of consolidation. The mucosae of the intestines were deeply 
reddened in circumscribed areas throughout. The brain was 
slightly hyperaemic. In other respects the organs appeared to 
be normal. A large number of cultures were made from the 
various organs. Those from the spleen, kidneys and blood re¬ 
mained clear. The others contained different bacteria. One 
of the cultures from the brain, one from the left lung, and those 
from the conjunctiva contained a streptococcus associated with 
other bacteria. It grew in long chains but it was not separ¬ 
ated in pure cultures. 
The results of these examinations are interesting in show- 
ing that in dogs certain streptococci find conditions favorable 
for life. Although it was thought that the streptococcus iso¬ 
lated from the first case was related to the disease, the results of 
the examinations of the two subsequent ones threw much doubt 
upon this hypothesis. No other suspicious organism was dis¬ 
covered. 
THE WIDE DISTRIBUTION OF STREPTOCOCCI A FREQUENT 
SOURCE OF CONFUSION. 
The fact has been pointed out in many publications that 
streptococci are quite widely distributed in nature. The re¬ 
sults of the bacteriologic examinations of normal mucous mem¬ 
branes show that they are frequently included in the bacterial 
flora of the mouth, throat, nares, intestines, vagina, and in a 
few cases they have been found in the bronchioles of the horse* 
and rabbitf. They are also present in greater or less numbers 
on the skin, especially in the deeper layers, presumably in the 
ducts of the sweat and sebaceous glands. In a former publica¬ 
tion! I called attention to their existence in soil and water, and 
stated that some of these extraneous forms were quite as deli- 
* Examinations made in his laboratory by Mr. R. C k Reed. 1897. 
f Beco. Archives de Med. Experimentale. Tome XI (1899.) p. 317. 
X Loc. cit. 
