Enzyme production is a very common phenomenon of microbes.Demonstration of certain enzymes may be of importance, not only in the differentiation of bacterial species, hut also in the separation of pathogenic from non-pathogenic bacterial strains. Thus, coagulase prnduction is the most common criterion used to distinguish pathogenic from non-pathogenic staphylococci. The staphylococci, however, also produce several other enzymes, the determination of which may bc of interest, especially if they are of importance to the pathogenicity.Almost all staphylococcal strains produce hyaluronidase and the question of whether there is any relationship between the quantitative hyaluronidase production and the clinical picture of a staphylococcal infection has arisen. While some investigators have been unahlc to demonstrate such a connection ( 1 1 , 1 3 ) , Faber & Hosendal ( 2 ) have observed a certain correlation between phage type 71 and strains helonging to group I11 and their quantitative production of hyaluronidase. With regard to the notorious phage pattern 80181, however, they found that it produced only moderate amounts of hyaluronidasc.Hyaluronidase may be demonstrated by several physico-chemical and biological methods. A t present most of these reactions are so timcconsuming that they are unsuitable for routine examination of largc series. It is, therefore, important that we now have some simple methods of demonstrating this and, also, other staphylococcal enzymes. In this communication we have used very easy methods to demonstrate the presence of different enzymes produced by the pathogenic staphylococci, uiz. hyaluronidase, phosphatase, fibrinolysin and lipase, and conipared them to the phage grouping.
M A T E R I A L A N D M E T H O D SThe total series consists of 1,738 coagulase positive strains which werc isolated from the routine material sent to the lahoratory for hacteriological examination during 1959. Hyuluronidase: Murruy & Peurce's (8) decapsulation t e b t wab u w d for the dmiori-218 Vogelsang, Th. M.: Carriage of phage patterns of pathogenic staphylococci in medical students. Acta path. et microhiol. scandinav. 4 3 : 196-210, 1958. Vogelsang, T h . M . & Haalantl, H.: Studies of pathogenic staphylococci in the upper respiratory tract of members of hospital staff. 3. Bacteriophage typing. Acta path. et microhiol. scandinav. 45: 281-294,1959, 23: 241-265,1957.
