| Summary: | Bacteriophages, regarded today as viruses parasitic on bacteria, are characterized by a number of well-defined properties, one of these being the specificity exhibited by some varieties of phages, not only for a single species of bacteria, but also for certain strains or types of that single species. A practical application of this property has been the use of bacteriophage for the identification or phage typing of certain strains of a given species. Fisk (1942) introduced a method of phage typing of staphylococci which has been successfully used for tracing sources of infection in epidemic outbreaks of staphylococcal enterotoxin food-poisoning and of staphylococcal infections of the skin in babies in maternity hospitals. Although this method is relatively simple and rapid, many strains of staphyloccoi are resistant to the action of the available phages and the absolute specificity of the phage types is questionable. The purpose of this work is to investigate the growth and multiplication requirements and the stability of the staphylococcus bacteriophages now available, and to use anti-bacteriophage sera (prepared by immunizing rabbits with selected phage strains) as a means for recognition of specificity. If the phages could be divided into a few representative groups, it is hoped that by a careful selection of these phages, a simpler method of phage typing applicable in every laboratory may be developed.
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