A STUDY OF CULTURES FROM SPUTUM AND BLOOD IN LOBAR PNEUMONIA

In the thirty-two unselected cases studied, cultures were taken from both the blood and the sputum, and in five of these more than one blood culture was taken. In one case the culture was taken from the blood only, and in this instance the pneumococcus was found. This case will be considered only with reference to the incidence of the pneumococci in blood cultures in lobar pneumonia. The results in the thirty-two cases in which cultures were made both from the blood and the sputum are as follows: 1. In eleven cases the blood and sputum cultures were positive. (a) In nine cases the pneumococcus was isolated, and five of these patients died. (b) In two cases, instead of the pneumococcus, Streptococcus hemolysans (longus) was found. One of these patients died. 2. In twenty-one cases the blood cultures were negative, and in eighteen of these the sputum cultures were positive and in three negative. In these three the only result recorded was the absence of the pneumococcus. (a) In nine cases the pneumococcus was isolated. Two of these patients died. (b) In twelve cases no pneumococcus was found. Two of these patients died. Of the patients in which no pneumococcus was found, in two cases Bacillus coli was isolated; in one case Micrococcus catarrhalis; in one case a staphylococcus (type not stated); in two cases staphylococcus and streptococcus; in one case Bacillus influenzæ, in one case Bacillus fluorescens non-liquefaciens; in one case an unidentified Gram positive chromogenic organism, probably saprophytic; and in three cases there are no recorded results except that the pneumococcus was absent. In the total of thirty-three blood cultures, the pneumococcus was found in ten cases (30.3 per cent.), and six of the patients died. During the years 1910 to 1912 sputum cultures were taken from forty-four cases of pneumonia, of which twenty-four showed pneumococci (54 per cent.), and twenty showed no pneumococci (45 per cent.).