No abstract

No abstract

Although the older literature, reviewed by yon Lingelsheim ( I ) , contains a rmmber of descriptions of encapsulated streptococci, the importance of organisms of this type as frequent producers .of disease has only been fully recognized since the publications of Schottmiiller (2), who found a well characterized organism, which he called Streptococcus mucosus, in various pyogenic processes and in lobar pneumonia. Many observers have since encountered this organism, occurring as it does in the most diverse pyogenic lesions, and its morphologic and biologic characteristics are well known.Among seventy-four cultures isolated from patients with lobar pneumonia in the Hospital of The Rockefeller Institute in the course of the past two years, nine, or 12 per cent., have been classed provisionally as belonging to the group of encapsulated streptococci of Schottmiiller. These organisms, through their power of producing a tenacious mucoid exudate in the peritoneal cavity of white mice, were readily separated from the larger group of encapsulated diplococci. At the same time, however, their cultural characteristics made it seem probable that they represented a variety of the pneumococcus rather than that they belonged to the streptococcus group.With the hope of determining more exactly the relations of Streptococcus mucosus of Schottmiiller to Diplococcus pneumoni¢, on the one hand, and to the streptococci, on the other, six of our nine organisms were selected for a comparative study of this problem. These six organisms were chosen at random from the nine in our possession. For convenience I shall refer to this group of organisms as Pneumococcus rather than Streptococcus mucosus. They were reobtained for this study from the dried spleens 1 of white mice which had died following a peritoneal injection of the sputum from * Received for publication, September 15, I913. 1 It not infrequently happens that mice infected intraperitoneally with pneumococci show, in addition to a pneumococcus septicemia, an infection with the 88 on

1. About 19 per cent. of the dry weight of the normal pig testicle is fatty matter. Histologically this fat occurs largely in the cells of the seminal tubules, and especially in the Sertoli cells. 2. During spermatogenesis the fat of the Sertoli cell passes inward for the nutrition of the spermatids and spermatozoa. During this passage its character is altered from a neutral fat to a lipoid. 3. About 30 per cent. of the dry weight of the cryptorchid pig testicle is fatty material. Histologically this fat lies within the seminal tubules, partially filling the Sertoli cells. The spermatogenic cells have completely disappeared. 4. We conclude that the presence of such an excessive amount of fat in the cryptorchid testicle is due to the absence of the spermatogenic cells which normally utilize during their development the fat furnished by the Sertoli cells.

1. Theoretically, the method of cultivating tissues outside the body offers an ideal technique for the demonstration and study of cytotoxins. 2. Mouse sarcoma, which grows vigorously in the plasma of normal rats, shows little or no activity in the plasma of rats immunized by mouse sarcoma injections. 3. Rat sarcoma, readily cultivated in the plasma of normal guinea pigs, either remains quite inactive, or presents a feeble growth in the plasma of guinea pigs previously treated with rat tissues. 4. The inhibition of growth in cultures of rat and mouse sarcomata in plasma from animals of a foreign species immunized against these tissues, is due, in all probability, to the action of cytotoxins.