, 1888-02-09
THE SCARLET FEVER GERM.
A Hitherto Unsupported Source of Scar
latina-Dr. Klein's Investigations.

A Hitherto unsupported Source of Scar
latina-Dr. Klein's Investigations.
Several months ago DIR. Klein and Mr..
W. II. Power, of the medical depart
ment of the government board, estab-
lished the relation between a disease
found on the udders of some COWS at
Hendon and s~carlahna. The COW disease
was not itself s%carlatina, but by cultiva-
ton of the organisms obtained from
cows the specific m~icrococcus of scar
latina was produced. Moreover, this
cultivation was made in milk, and it was
h milk of the affected COWS that caused
the scarlatina epidemic which gave rise
to the inquiry. Then it was proved that
the virus Of the COW disease, if conveyed
into the human body by the medium of
milk, developed there into the germ of
scarlatina; although between the COW
disease itself and scarlatina there is
almost every possible difference.
h discovery suggested to DR.. Klein
a further question. He had shown that
h COW disease could set up scarlatina in
h human subject; he would now find
out whether the scarlatina germ was ca
pable of producing the COW disease. From
a number of patients in the Fulham fever
hospital DR.. Klein took minute quantities
of blood. These were placed in tiny tubes
and transferred to the surface of nutri-
tive gelatine. In the result he obtained
clear evidence that in some of his expert
ments the blood contained organisms. In
other cases no positive results whatever
were obtained. But in four cases out of
nine the specific organism was detected,
and the organism SO recovered from the
blood of scarlatina patients was found to
be exactly the same as has been cultivated
from the virus taken from the teats of
the Hendon COWS. DIR. Klein does not
hesitate to name this organism the mi
%crococcus scarlatine, as having a special
character and q definite mode of exist
ence. The next question was whether,
itself capable of being cultivated from
the COW disease, it was capable of being
transformed back into the virus of that
disease.
With a %subculture of m~icrococcus scar
latin@, derived from scarlet fever in a
human being, DR.. Klein inoculated two
calves. The first was killed after ten
days, and from blood taken from it o
growth was derived identical with the
m-icrococcus scarlatine. The second calf
was killed after twenty days with tho
same results. In both animals an iden-
tical disease had been produced. Subse-
quently two calves were fed with milk
mixed with the growth from several
tubes of the same date and the same
source as used for the other calves, and
again the identical disease was produced,
this disease bearing a great resemblance
to that observed in the Hendon cows,
except that there was no affection of the
glriY, Irrt tl,,.nA l,,N &c r-,n -.
of which were inoculated and two fed
were differently affected. Sore patches
appeared, and the skin became scurfy,
and on each nostril of one of them there
was a patch of eruption, which decided
the matter. From these skins eruptions
were obtained 'beautiful chains of cocci''
coinciding with those developed from the
virus of the cows. The circle was thus
completed.
A cow disease which is not scarlatina,
nor anything like scarlatfna, causes the
animal to have sore teats. The exuda-
tons find their way into the milk pail,
and there develop into something which
infects human beings with scarlatina.
From the scarlet fever patient a few drops
of blood are taken, and after the disease
germ has been cultivated it is passed into
the system of a calf, which forthwith be-
m attacked by the identical disease
observed in the original cow. But this is
not all. A case of suspected condensed
milk was brought under DR.. Klein's
notice. SCarlatina had broken out and
could be traced to no other source. Sure
enough, the micrococcus scarlatinn was
found in the milk, and experiments with
it on animals yielded exactly the same
results as before. Again, last January q
monkey died at Wimbledon of scarlatina
contracted by drinking the milk of cows
among which there prevailed a disease
similar TO that at the Hendon farm.
Microscopic examination of the internal
organs of the monkey revealed the same
changes as occur in these organs in
human %scarlatina, and in the blood the
scarlatina m-icrococcus was found. BY
means Of this m~icrococcus the Hendon
disease was again induced in animals.
DIR. Klein may therefore claim to have
discovered a hitherto unsupported cause
of s%Carlatina, in the form of a little
noticed and less understood COW disease
quite distinct from the dreaded malady
which-after certain developments of its
germ-it produces in man.-St. James
Gazette.