EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF THE NASOPHARYNGEAL SECRETIONS FROM INFLUENZA PATIENTS : VII. FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE CULTURAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS OF BACTERIUM PNEUMOSINTES.

After artificial cultivation for a period of over 3 years Bacterium pneumosintes has maintained its original morphological and cultural characteristics, when grown in the original medium. Adaptation to a saprophytic existence has been accompanied by a loss of pathogenicity. Our strains now grow readily under strictly anaerobic conditions in a variety of media with peptone broth as a base, enriched with fresh tissue, blood, or by the growth of other bacteria. Surface colonies have been obtained on blood agar plates in. an anaerobic jar. These various methods of cultivation are adapted to special purposes. In broth cultures Bacterium pneumosintes grows in larger forms than in the ascitic fluid-tissue medium, but the identity of the microorganisms is proved by their serological reactions and by reversion to the minute forms on transfer to the original medium.