Antibacterial Activity of the Staphylococcus

Abstract

THE observation that the Staphylococcus can inhibit the growth of other bacteria has been recorded, in some fifty papers over a period of sixty years, beginning with Babès¹, who showed that a Staphylococcus inhibited the growth of B. anthracis and of another Staphylococcus. The majority of reports have been concerned with the action of Staphylococci against the diphtheria bacillus. In 1909, Schi?tz² recorded the observations that a patient with a staphylococcal sore throat, nursed in a diphtheria ward because of a mistaken diagnosis, did not develop diphtheria, and that carriers became free of the diphtheria bacillus during a non-specific throat infection. There followed a number of attempts, mostly in the United States, to use Staphylococci in a spray to treat diphtheria carriers.