Recognition of the pneumococcus depends upon its morphology, the fact that it is Gram-staining, and the presence of a capsule.
The pneumococcus is the causative agent in nearly all cases {36} of croupous pneumonia, and is commonly found in large numbers in the rusty sputum of this disease.
THE EAR By far the most frequent exciting causes of acute otitis media are the pneumococcus and the streptococcus.
The pneumococcus holds the purple stain, while all capsules take on the pink counter-stain.
Widely present as the pneumococcus is, we know well that it is powerless for harm except in unhealthful surroundings.
It is only when a sufficient number of cases occur in succession to raise the virulence of the pneumococcus in this curious manner that an epidemic with high fatality develops.
One thing was entirely overlooked in all this speculation until about twenty years ago,--that pneumonia was due not simply to the depressing effects of cold, but to a specific germ, the pneumococcus of Fraenkel.
Now that we know that under decent and civilized conditions of light and ventilation the pneumococcus will live but an hour to an hour and a half, this reduces the risk of direct infection under these conditions to a minimum.
Another interesting feature about the pneumococcus is its vitality outside of the body.
Authorities are still divided as to the meaning and even the precise frequency of the occurrence of the pneumococcus in the healthy human mouth.
In defense of this last it may be pointed out that dental bacteriologists have now already isolated and described some thirty different forms of organisms which inhabit the mouth and teeth; and the pneumococcus may well be one of these.
Welch, pathologist of the Lying-in Hospital, found that rabbits infected with lethal doses of pneumococcuscultures intravenously were saved by large doses of camphorated oil; fragmentary protocols are given.
The pneumococcus for example occurs in the sputum of patients suffering from acute lobar pneumonia, but usually in association with various saprophytes derived from the mouth and pharynx.
But inoculate some of the sputum under the skin of a mouse and three or four days later the pneumococcus will have entered the blood stream (leaving the saprophytes at the seat of inoculation) and killed the animal.
The patient died of pneumococcus septicemia during a lobar pneumonia.
December 5, the patient was transferred to the Army neurological center; temperature rose; there was much expectoration; paracentesis yielded no fluid; pneumococcus in the sputum.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "pneumococcus" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
