CHAPTER XVI 
BACILLUS MUCOSUS CAPSULATUS (FRIEDLAND- 
ER’S OR PNEUMO-BACILLUS) 
This organism first described by Friedlander in 1882 
causes about 5 per cent of all cases of pneumonia; such 
pneumonia is extremely dangerous. 
It is occasionally found in ulceration of the mouth, 
nasal catarrh, ozena (fetid nasal catarrh), empyema 
(pus in the pleural cavity), and spinal fluid. The author 
once recovered it from a gall bladder infection and 
from blood in subsequent septicemia. 
Friedlander’s bacillus is short and plump, has no 
spores, no flegalla, is nonmotile, has very large capsule; 
it is Gram-negative, and grows well on all ordinary meat 
extract media, producing peculiar, “slimy’’ colonies, does 
not liquefy gelatin (culture assumes a characteristic nail¬ 
like appearance). 
All sugars, except lactose are fermented with the for¬ 
mation of gas. 
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