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266 TEE MICRO-ORGANISMS OF THE HUMAN MOUTH.

e. Bacillus salivarius sepii.cus.
Of these, Bacillus salivarius septicus is said to occur most fre-
quently in the saliva of healthy as well as of sick persons. It
forms very short elliptical rods with somewhat tapering extrem-
ities and comparatively thick bodies, and grows but poorly on
common neutral media.
" Mice and rabbits injected with one-half to one cubic centi-
meter of such saliva generally succumbed within twenty-four to
forty-eight or seventy-two hours. The autopsy revealed oedema,
hemorrhage, tumor of the spleen, and micro-organisms in the
blood. This bftcillus acts most intensely at the point of infec-
tion, without showing a special predilection for any particular
organ. At first it proliferates at the point of entrance, is then
carried through the blood- and lymphatic vessels to the rest of the
body, and multiplies in these channels until death is caused."
Passage through the body of a refractive animal, high temper-
atures, etc., diminish the virulence of this micro-organism.
Animals infected with weakened material proved resistant to
virulent inoculations.
/. Coccus salkarias septicus.
Coccus salivarius septicus was found but once, and is there-
fore hardly to be regarded as a mouth-bacterium, but rather as
an accidental contamination of the saliva, particularly as the
patient in whose mouth it was found suffered from violent puer-
peral septicfemia.
" Subcutaneous injections with this saliva in mice, guinea-pigs,
and rabbits proved fatal after four to six days. The only and
constant result of the autopsy was the presence of the cocci in the
blood and the tissues."
This microbe is easily isolated from the blood, and grows well
on the usual culture-media. The colonies within the gelatine
of plate-cultures are perfectly round, and of white-grayish color,
sometimes merging into black.
Streptococcus septo-pycBynicus.
(J.
" When subeutaneously injected in quantities of c.cm.,
J-1
the saliva containing this streptococcus proved pathogenic for