Studies on Pneumococcus Growth Inhibition

Employing a method, described in an earlier publication, for testing the pneumococcidal activity of serum-leucocyte mixtures, a study has been made of the pneumococcus-destroying properties of the blood of a relatively susceptible animal, the rabbit, for pneumococci of low virulence for the species. It was found that rabbit serum-leucocyte mixtures possessed the power to kill avirulent pneumococci in relatively large numbers but failed to inhibit the growth of virulent organisms even in minute quantities. The results of numerous experiments in which all three types of pneumococci were employed indicated that the ability of a strain of pneumococcus to grow in rabbit blood is dependent on its virulence for the rabbit. The extreme susceptibility of the very young rabbit to strains of pneumococcus of low virulence for the full grown animal, was found to be associated with an absence of pneumococcidal properties in the blood of the young rabbit. These findings suggest that the relatively susceptible animals possess the same type of defense mechanism against pneumococcus infection as do the highly pneumococcus-resistant species.