During the winter and spring of 1931, from January to May, a bacteriologic study of infections of the throat in children was made, with particular reference to hemolytic streptococci. Among these streptococci, the type characterized by large mucoid colonies and encapsulation was identified in nine of one hundred and two patients as Streptococcus epidemicus (Davis). It is our purpose to report the occurrence in children of sporadic sore throat due to S. epidemicus and to emphasize the more frequent complications in tonsillitis due to this organism than in tonsillitis due to other hemolytic streptococci.
Sporadic sore throat in adults from whom hemolytic streptococci were isolated was found to be due to S. epidemicus in approximately 10 per cent of the patients. Up to this time S. epidemicus has been identified only in connection with milk-borne epidemics of septic sore throat. Our investigations1 have shown sore throat in its natural