Pathogenic Bacteria

352 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA.

In the opinion of most authorities, something more
than the simple entrance of the bacterium into the lung
is required for the production of the disease, but what
that something is, is still a matter of doubt. It would
seem to be some systemic depravity, and in support of this
view we may point out that pneumonia is very frequent,
and almost universally fatal, among drunkards. Whether,
however, any vital depression or systemic depravity will
predispose to the disease, or whether it depends for its
origin iipon the presence of a certain leucomaine, time
and further study will be required to tell.

Bacillus Pneiimonics of Friedlander (Fig. 100).—An un-

FlG. 100.—Bacillus pneumonia of Friedlander, from the expectoration of a
pneumonia patient; x 1000 (Frankel and Pfeiffer).

fortunate accident has applied the name " pneumococcus n
to an organism very different from the one just described.
It was discovered by Friedlander in 1883 in the exudate
from the lung in croupous pneumonia, and, being thought
by its discoverer to be the cause of the disease, very natu-
rally was called the pneumococcus, or, more correctly, the
pne^lmobac^llus. The grounds upon which the pathog-
eny of the organism was supposed to depend were very in-
sufficient, and the bacillus of Friedlander—or, as Fliigge