Micrococcus

“ We should, then, be suspicious of these beautiful crystalline springs when there are epidemics on the plateau from which they come. They may contain micro-organisms—some indifferent, others dangerous. The microbes which I found belong to the genus micrococcus. Two of them (Micrococcus aurentiacus and M. citreus) developed in fine colonies of orange and citron-yellow colors; a third (M. aquatilis) gave no coloring matter. I obtained microbic colonies after the twentieth hour.
What, in short, is this underground river Midroï (Fig. 2) ? ”

“ Some special microbe is found in almost every special inflammatory product—vibriones in the pus of abscess, gonococcus in urethral inflammation, micrococcus in diphtheria, etc.—but no one, we believe, now holds that these various microbes are the causes of these diseases, since inoculation with pure cultures have given entirely negative results. ”

“ In addition to the Micrococcus described by Renault from the Toula paper-coal, there are a host of other forms which 135have been minutely diagnosed and figured by Profs. Renault and Bertrand [214] . These authors have discovered what they believe to be well-defined species of Micrococcus and Bacillus ranging in age from Devonian to Jurassic. The material which has afforded the somewhat startling results of their investigations consists partly of the coprolites of reptiles and fishes, and of silicified and calcified plant tissues. ”

“ Those which have been best studied are Schmidt-Mülheim’s micrococci, the Actinobacter polymorphus of Duclaux, the Bacillus lactis pituitosi of Löffler, the Bacillus lactis of Adametz, the Streptococcus hollandicus, and, finally, three others which are much commoner, Guillebeau’s bacillus, the Micrococcus Freudenreichii, and the Bacterium Hessii. These microorganisms act on the lactose, decomposing it and causing the formation of a kind of filamentous mucilage, which can be isolated by the addition of alcohol.
The mucilaginous change in milk can be prevented by ordinary methods of disinfection. ”

“ We have no disposition to ignore the existence of four or five species of microbes, the destructive effects of which appear to be well established, such as the anthrax-bacteria, the septic vibrion, Obermeyer's spirill, the micrococcus of the hen-cholera, and some other less well-known bacteria. ”

“ The blood-rain, Micrococcus prodigiosus, gives off an odour resembling trimethylamin. Micro-organisms have the property of producing various changes in the medium on which they are grown. In many cases albuminous bodies are peptonized and gelatine is liquefied. Many bacteria have the faculty of resolving organic bodies into their simplest elements; others, again, have the property of converting ammonia into nitric and nitrous acid. Certain microbes have the property of becoming phosphorescent in the dark. These phosphorescent bacteria are often seen on decaying plants and wood ”

“ N part of a tree-like zooglœa with Cocci and short rods.—All of these spirilla, zooglœa, etc., which Zopf has connected with Clad. dichotoma, are according to Winogradsky, independent organisms.
Micrococcus ureæ produces urinal fermentation (transformation of urinal matter into ammonium carbonate) ; aerobic; round cells generally united to form bent chains or a zooglœa.—Several other kinds of Bacteria have the same action as this one: in damp soil containing ammonia-compounds, saltpetre-formations are produced by M. nitrificans and several different kinds of Bacteria. ”

“ The motionless form of the anthrax bacillus is of especial value in distinguishing it from the motile bacteria of putrefaction (saprophytes) .
Within the living animal body the development never goes aside from these forms. The growth appears limited to micrococcus and bacillus rods, while spores or bacillus threads are never found. This finds its counterpart in the micrococcus poisoning caused by the inoculation with the spores of common moulds (Grawitz) ; and in septicæmia also micrococcus and bacillus forms only are found, the filamentous never. ”

“ We have seen that bacteria differ greatly in appearance from the elongated dot of the bacterium proper, to the elongated rod or cylinder of the bacillus, and the long spirals of spiro-bacteria. It is unfortunate that they are not sufficiently constant in habit to always attach themselves to one or the other of these genera. The micrococcus has a habit of elongating at times until it is impossible to recognize him except as a bacterium ”

“ One of the most violent pathogenic bacteria is that which produces anthrax, but this loses its pathogenic powers if it is cultivated for a considerable period at a high temperature. The micrococcus which causes fowl cholera loses its power if it be cultivated in common culture media, care being taken to allow several days to elapse between the successive inoculations into new culture flasks. Most pathogenic bacteria can in some way be so treated as to suffer a diminution or complete loss of their powers of producing a fatal disease. ”

“ But when the vital resistance of the tissues is reduced, on the one hand, by wasting sickness, profuse discharges, etc., or, on the other hand, the vital activity of the invading parasitic organism is increased, the balance of power rests with the infinitesimal but potent micrococcus. ”

“ Other bacterial cultures such as Bacillus subtilus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Micrococcus roseus, and Mycobacterium smegmatis (SI>0.80) serve as suitable blind QC cultures. MEASUREMENT: 13.
Set gas chromatograph according to manufacturer’s recommendations and to conditions given on page 0801-1. Inject a 2-μL sample aliquot with an autosampler. 14. ”

“ Analogous forms of fever giving a “specific” serum reaction with the micro coccus of this disease are also met with in parts of India, China, Africa and America.
The Micrococcus melitensis vel Brucei (1887) , which is found most abundantly in the enlarged spleen of the patient suffering from Malta fever, is a very minute organism (0·33μ in diameter) , ovoid or nearly round, arranged in pairs or in very short chains. If a drop of the blood taken directly from the spleen be smeared over the surface of agar nutrient medium, minute transparent colourless colonies appear ”

“ Tættemœlk, a popular beverage in Norway, is made from milk that has been infected with the leaves of the common butter wort, Pinguicula vulgaris, from which Weigmann separated a bacillus possessing the power of setting up slimy fermentation. There are, perhaps, as many as a dozen species of bacteria which have in a greater or less degree the power of setting up this kind of fermentation. In 1882 Schmidt isolated the Micrococcus viscosus, which occurs in chains and rosaries, affecting the milk-sugar. It grows at blood-heat, and is not easily destroyed by cold. ”

“ This doctrine, which was first advanced by Professor Klebs four years ago, has lately been the subject of most careful research by Dr. Schüller, of Greifswald, who has shown that every form of tuberculosis can thus be artificially induced, the characteristic micrococcus spreading rapidly in the blood and tissues of the animal inoculated with it ”

“ Pasteur that we owe these wonderful discoveries, the parasitic microbes themselves, which sow sickness and death, may, through proper culture, become true vaccine viri that are capable of preserving the organism against any future attack of the disease that they were capable of producing; such vaccine matters have been discovered for charbon, chicken cholera, the measles of swine, etc.
When the micrococcus of chicken cholera (Fig. 3.) is cultivated, it is seen that the activity of the microbe in cultures exposed to the air gradually diminishes. ”

“ Obviously, we can not wait for the manufacture of any poison, but must make it an impossibility, if we can, without rivaling any of the toxic effects by our remedies. Acquaintance is occasionally made with the ptomaine before the guilty micrococcus is known; in such cases even more care must be exercised.
Following the investigations of Lister and Hueppe, the ordinary fermentation of milk is traced to the growth of a microorganism known as Bacterium lactis, which converts the milk-sugar into lactic acid. ”

“ The great tenacity of life in the spores in heat and cold, dryness and wet, excluded from air and under several atmospheres of oxygen, in the midst of putrefaction and in pure watery fluids, well accounts for the persistence of infection in buildings and localities where the poison has gained a foothold. In order to their destruction in a natural manner it seems necessary that they should germinate and develop into the anthrax micrococcus, bacillus, or mycelium. ”

“ In the next stage ammonia is formed by the tryptic enzymes secreted by the ærobic bacteria, and so the anærobic organisms are enabled to develop. We can thus understand how it is that putrefaction proceeds more rapidly the more mixed ferments there are present, although these were formerly supposed to hinder putrefaction from taking place.
When meat is exposed to air it is first attacked by the mixed ferments, Micrococcus flavus liquefaciens, Staphylococcus, Bacillus coli, Bacillus filiformis, Streptococcus and Diplococcus, and becomes acid ”

“ The bacteriology of broncho-pneumonia presents no one micro-organism which can be definitely said to cause the disease. The micro-organism most frequently found, either alone or associated with other bacteria, is the pneumococcus, which occurred in 67% of a series investigated by Wollstein. Other organisms found are the streptococcus, particularly in bronchopneumonia following infectious fevers, the staphylococcus aureus and albus, and Friedlander's bacillus. In some cases the bacillus infiuenzae alone has been found, and the Klebs-Lofiier bacillus in cases following upon diphtheria. ”

“ The invading organism is usually one of the staphylococci, less frequently a streptococcus, and still less frequently one of the other bacteria capable of producing pus, such as the bacillus coli communis, the gonococcus, the pneumococcus, or the typhoid bacillus.
So long as the tissues are in a healthy condition they are able to withstand the attacks of moderate numbers of pyogenic bacteria of ordinary virulence, but when devitalised by disease, by injury, or by inflammation due to the action of other pathogenic organisms, suppuration ensues. ”

“ In each case a simple inoculation experiment may decide the point at once. As a concrete example may be instanced an autopsy on an animal dead from an unknown infection. Cultivations from the heart blood gave a pure growth of a typical (capsulated) pneumococcus. Cultivations from the liver gave a pure growth of what appeared to be a typical (non-capsulated) Streptococcus pyogenes longus. The latter inoculated into a rabbit caused the death of the animal from pneumococcic septicæmia, and cultures from the rabbit's blood gave a pure growth of a typical (capsulated) pneumococcus. ”

“ Under the conditions named it is certainly more in accord with ordinary scientific reasoning to conclude that the micrococci play an important part in the production of puerperal fever than that the puerperal fever produces the micrococci.
To be sure, bacteria or their spores are always present in the air, and it may be fairly asked how patients are ever spared from their perverse industry. The answer is, that the effect produced by the atmosphere of a hospital is dependent partly upon the quantity, and partly upon the quality, of the suspended germs. ”

“ The two common pyogenetic organisms, Staphylococcus albus and brevis, show no virulence. Also the pneumococcus, though often present, must be raised in virulence before it can produce untoward results. The foulness of the mouth is supposed to be due to the colon bacillus and its allies, but those obtained from the mouth are innocuous. Also to enable the Oidium albicans to attack the mucous membrane there must be some slight inflammation or injury. The micro-organisms found in the stomach gain access to that organ in the food or by regurgitation from the small intestine. ”

“ As the lymph contains elements necessary to the body, such as water, oxygen, albumins, carbohydrates, etc., their loss brings about body-waste and exhaustion from lack of nourishment. Again, bacteria produce a vast number [Pg 10] of compounds, some harmless and others highly poisonous.
The symptoms of a microbic disease are largely due to the absorption of poisonous materials from the area of infection. These poisons may be formed in the tissues by the action upon them of the bacteria, or they may be liberated from the bodies of degenerating microbes. ”

“ The bacillus was first detected in the blood of patients suffering from the disease. It takes the form of a small, round-ended, oval cell, with marked polar staining, and hence having an appearance not unlike a diplococcus. In the middle there is a clear interspace, and the whole is surrounded with a thick capsule, stained only with difficulty. The organisms are often linked together in pairs or even chains, and exhibit involution forms. In culture the bacillus is even more coccal in form than in the body. ”

“ Agglomerations in microscopic masses, surrounded by a jelly that sticks them together and deprives them of motion, are called zoöglæa. A non-gelatinous membrane formed of motionless bacteria is a mycoderma. Bacteria attached end to end in a string form filaments of leptothrix. A number of spherical micrococci joined one after another form the string of round grains called a torula. A considerable number of species may be included in each of these divisions; and there does not appear at present any way to distinguish by sight a disease-producing bacterium from a harmless one. ”