Specific Types Of Alpha Streptococci And Streptococcal Antigen In Unpotable Water And Water Supplies

Abstract

In studies of the causation of various diseases, it was found that if pieces of fresh calf brain (approximately 1 part by volume to 6 parts of medium) were added to the standard medium, such as dextrose broth and dextrose agar (0.2 per cent dextrose and 0.2 per cent agar), before autoclaving, the mediums became far more favorable for the primary isolation of pathogenic streptococci from foci of infection and involved tissues and for the maintenance of their specificity than without the brain substance. These brain-containing mediums also have been found highly favorable for the isolation of specific types of streptococci from milk supplies, from indoor and outdoor air, from emulsions and filtrates of emulsions of mosquitoes and flies caught during epidemics of poliomyelitis and encephalitis 12 and from nasopharynx, cerebrospinal fluid and emulsions or filtrates of emulsions of brain and spinal cord in cases of poliomyelitis, encephalitis and equine encephalomyelitis.