Survey of Toxicity in Staphylococci

In a recent survey of the bacteriology of hand and finger infections, the opportunity has arisen to examine the characteristics of 60 strains of Staphylococcus pyogenes. Howard (1954) has shown a positive correlation between the number of flocculation lines produced by a strain grown at right angles to an antitoxin strip and the pathogenicity of the strain for mice. He also found these results to show a positive correlation with the complexity of the haemolysin pattern and the titre of a-haemolysin in broth cultures. It was decided to repeat these interesting observations and, together with additional investigations, to obtain information about staphylococci which could be regarded as primary pathogens and which came from one clinical source.