A Note on the Behavior of the Saprophytic Cocci with Regard to Gram's Stain

C.-E. A., and A. R. Winslow I found that one of the fundamental differences between the parasitic and saprophytic cocci was their behavior to the Gram stain. The parasitic forms (Paracoccace~e) generally retained the stain, while the saprophytic group (Metacoccace~e) generally decolorized by Gram. In my recent revision of the Coccacem in the collection at the Museum of Natural History, 2 I was able to corroborate the observations made by these authors. Of twenty-three strains belonging to the subfamily Metacoccace~e, seventeen, or 74 per cent., were Gram-negative; two, or 9 per cent., were Gram-positive; and four, or 17 per cent., gave a variable reaction, giving both positive and negative tests either on the same slide or on different occasions. Three quarters of our strains thus appeared as Gram-negative, while only one twelfth of the cultures gave a repeatedly positive test. Winslow, using about 25o strains, obtained only 22 per cent. of Gram-positive reactions in this group. While studying the parallelism between the Gram reaction and inhibition of growth by gentian violet, Churchman a tested a large number of our organisms, among which were most of our M.etacoccace~e. His findings proved entirely contradictory to mine, as all the cocci tested by him are without exception reported as Grampositive. Believing that the discrepancies were due to the differences in the