Abstract
The discovery by Lancefield
1
of a human-diagnostic “carbohydrate” fraction in certain pathogenic strains of Streptococcus hemolyticus, and Tillett and Garner's
2
demonstration of a specific fibrinolytic function in similar streptococci, suggests a possible genetic linkage between these 2 hereditary (or acquired) specific bacterial characters. To test this possibility, 189 strains of hemolytic streptococci previously titrated for their fibrinolytic function
3
have
been retitrated for their specific carbohydrate fraction by the Lancefield technic. Control tests were run with 2 human (C 203 and K 96) and 2 veterinary (P 454 and K 158 E) strains kindly furnished by Dr. Lancefield. The results of these titrations are summarized in Table I.
Within the limits of the experimental error, there is an exact correlation between the Tillett-Garner specific fibrinolytic titer of S. hemolyticus and their Lancefield human-diagnostic carbohydrate titer by the ring test.
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