The stabilities of S and R-form antigens of 4 strains of Clostridium perfringens prepared with 4 kinds of media (Basic (BA), Trypto-soy (TA), Heart infusion (HIA) and CW agar plate) were examined by agglutination tests against 41 of antisera.
1. Colonies of the rugged structure were found always on HIA and CW. The antigens prepared with these colonies were agglutinated by 41 of antisera in higher and wider area than those of BA and TA.
2. The budding of R-form was observed almost as a rhizoid segment from the periphery of a Scolony. It occurred in high level from the first plating of the stock culture. A little increase of incidence of R-form was observed on BA and TA, much increase on HIA and CW by incubating for 48 hr, but not 72 hr.
3. When 8 R-antigens and 4 antigens of their parent S-strains were compared by the agglutination tests agalinst 41 of antisera, 5 types of R-antigens were found, namely, the perfectly same, partial difference, complete difference etc. However, if more R-strains were examined, R-antigens of much more different character would have appeared.
4. By absorption test the R-strain differed completely from the parent strain in the antigenic structure. The agglutination tests of R-antigens against 14 of human normal sera showed parallel relation to the result against above-mentioned 41 antisera. Particularly, one R-antigen of the widest positive reaction-area showed 1: 80-320 of titer by all normal sera. These agglutinations were presumed to be non-specific.
5. By these all results, to prepare the antigen of Clostridium perfringens author recommend to use BA as the medium, to purify S-form by the several subcultures and to incubate less than for 20 hr.

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An outbreak of scarlet fever, which lasted from May 15 to June 3, 1972, occurred in a kindergarten in Tachikawa city in the west of greater Tokyo. Out of 224 attending children, 14 cases (6.1%) of scarlet fever, 6 (2.6%) of scarlet fever suspects, and 16 (7.5%) of acute pharyngitis were found in that outbreak. All scarlet fever cases were hospitalized in the isolation ward of pediatric deptartment of Tachikawa Hospital. The throat swab cultures performed on them were positive for beta hemolytic streptococci in 9 (64.3%). Six strains obtained from 5 cases were tested for grouping and typing by agglutination method. All of them belonged to Group A, of which three were. Type 12, one Type 1, and one, untypable.
On June 20, 197 children who were then attending the kindergarten were reexamined for hemolytic streptococci. Sixty seven (34.0%) were recognized as carrier of Group A, all of which were Type 12. The carriers from whom over 5 colonies of hemolytic streptococci per plate were isolated were administrated Bicillin. syrup 40, 000U/Kg/day for 8 days. The medication was proved effective for the germ eradication. Between these carriers and non-carriers, there found a significant difference in ASO titers; 18 of 56 carriers and 1 out of 21 non-carriers showed 250U or more.
In the meantime, we have been engaging the isolation of hemolytic streptococci in Tachikawa Hospital from December, 1970. It had been the tendency judged by various tests on 239 strains of beta streptococci isolated in the period up to December, 1972, that Type 12 was most prevalent and further a marked increase of the isolation of this type had been noticed in the second half of the year, 1972. Incidentally, an increase of acute glomerulonenpritis cases was seen in this city and its vicinity toward the end of that year. It was also a noticeable trend that, among 176 (73.6%) antibiotic resistant strains (to any or some of TC, EM, CP) out of those 239 strains tested, Type 12 was most predominant in number and the percentage to all Type 12 strains (145 strains) was 94.5%, the highest among all types, followed by Type 4 (83.3% of 24 strains). No strains of all tested were found resistant to penicillin-G or aminobenzylpenicillin. Save 4 strains, all were resistant to TC. The strains resistant not only to TC but also to EM were found in Type 12 in great number.
From these results, it is feared that such antibiotic resistant hemolytic streptococci will increase in number in notso distant future.

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1) In 1971, we isolated Haemophilus aphrophilus (H. aphro.) from 3 female patients with bacterial endocarditis associated with prolonged heart diseases. It's certain that 2 of them were suffered from H. aphro. endocarditis. The other is highly suspected to be so. These cases are the first report of the infection with H. aphro. in Japan.
2) Common symptoms among these 3 cases were high fever and severe anemia, and 2 of them revealed hemorrhagic tendency, e. g. hematuria and nasal bleeding.
3) All of the mice intra-peritoneally injected with H. aphro. died within 24 hours. Same bacillus was re-isolated from those mice.
4) H. aphro. is highly susceptible to ampicillin, Penicillin-G and Rifampicin, moderately susceptible to Chloramphenicol, Tetracycline, Kanamycin and Gentamycin, but resistant to Lincomycin.
5) These 3 patients were cured of H. aphro. endocarditis by chemotherapy.

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Antipyretic effect of mefenamic acid (Pontal) now widely used as sedative was evaluated in patients with fever by double blind method. Aspirin was used as the control drug.
Patients with fever of 37.5°C or more before treatment were included in this study. Origin of fever was various but in about 80% of the cases fever was caused by acute upper respiratory infections. Each patient was given 500mg (for adults) or 375mg (for children) of either mefenamic acid or aspirin 3 times for 24 hours. Fever was measured within 30 minutes before and 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours after treatment.
Total of 287 cases including 35 drop out cases were collected. Finally, antipyretic effect in 124 cases of mefenamic acid and 128 of aspirin was evaluated clinically and compared statistically. For statistical analysis, time (hours) and doses of drugs required for getting afebrile, degrees of antipyretic effect at 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours after treatment and “fever area” on the chart were used as the parameters for comparison of two groups.
Both, mefenamic acid and aspirin showed marked antipyretic effect and there appeared to be no significant differences in two groups, though in judgement by degree of the effect by hour and “fever area” mefenamic acid was considered to be a little more effective than aspirin.
No severe side effects were observed in both groups throughout the study.
Thus, the results obtained suggest that mefenamic acid has antipyretic effect not at all inferior to aspirin and may be useful in practice as antipyretic drug as well as sedative.

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[in Japanese]

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