194 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA.

Iviebmanl reports two cases of streptococcic enteritis
that were cerefully studied bacteriologically.

Flexner,2 in a series of autopsies upon cases of death
from various diseases, found the bodies invaded by num-
erous micro-organisms, causing what he has called £(term-
inal infections,'' and hastening the fatal issue. Of 793
autopsies at Johns Hopkins Hospital, 255 from chronic
heart or kidney diseases, or both, were sufficiently well
studied' bacteriologically to meet the needs of a statis-
tical inquiry. Tubercular infection was not included.
Of the 255 cases, 213 gave positive bacteriological results.
"The micro-organisms causing the infections, 38 in all,
were the Streptococcus pyogenes, 16 cases; Staphylococcus
pyogenes aureus, 4 cases; Micrococcus lanceolatus, 6 cases;
gas bacillus (B. Aerogenes capsulatus), three times alone
and twice combined with the Bacillus coli communis; the
gonococcus, anthrax bacillus, Bacillus proteus, the last
combined with the Bacillus coli, the Bacillus coli alone, a
peculiar capsulated bacillus, and an unidentified coccus."

It is interesting to observe how many cases were
accompanied by the streptococcus. All the streptococci
may not have been streptococcus pyogenes, but for con-
venience in his statistics they were regarded by Flexner
as identical.

The streptococcus of Rosenbach is thought by many
to be identical with a streptococcus described by Fehleisen
as the Streptococcus erysipelatis (Fig. 55). The two or-
ganisms have much in common, but much difference of
opinion exists upon the subject of their identity. It may
seem unwise to omit the Streptococcus erysipelatis as a
major topic for discussion, but the similarity of the or-
ganism to that just described has caused us to consider
them in the same connection.

The streptococci of erysipelas can be obtained in almost
pure culture from the serum which oozes from a puncture
made in the margin of an erysipelatous patch. They are

1 Centralbl. fur Bakt. und Parasitenk., Bd. xxii., Nos. 14 and 15, p. 376.

2 Journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. i., No. 3, 1896.