Studies on the Listerella Group: I. Biochemical and Hemolytic Reactions.

Although the organisms now known as Listerella were first reported as a new species by Murray, Webb and Schwann (1926), and were given the genus name by Pirie (1927), earlier reports contain descriptions which indicate that the organisms were seen prior to 1926. Atkinson (1917) noted a gram-positive diphtheroid organism in five human cases of what was thought to be epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis. No other organisms could be found in direct smears from the patients or by cultivation, but involution forms of "extraordinary complexity" were noted. Goodpasture (1924) described a spontaneous encephalitis in rabbits due to a gram-positive bacillus, and characterized by a mononuclear exudate in the meninges. This report thus described both the mononucleosis and the predilection for the central nervous system