noun
definition
Any of a group of spherical, aerobic, gram-positive bacteria, of the genus Micrococcus, that are wide-ranging and harmless.
Examples of micrococcus in a Sentence
Mediterranean (sometimes called " Malta ") fever has been traced by Colonel David Bruce to a Micrococcus melitensis.
By making very thin sections and employing high magnification (1000-1200 diameters), Renault has been enabled to detect numerous forms of bacilli in the woody parts preserved in coal, one of which, Micrococcus carbo, bears a strong resemblance to the living Cladothrix found in trees buried in peat bogs.
All these terms, including the usual one of bacteria, are unsatisfactory; for " bacterium," " bacillus " and " micrococcus " have narrow technical meanings, and the other terms are too vague to be scientific. The most satisfactory designation is that proposed by Nageli in 1857, namely " schizomycetes," and it is by this term that they are usually known among botanists; the less exact term, however, is also used and is retained in this article since the science is commonly known as " bacteriology."
In 1862 Pasteur placed it beyond reasonable doubt that the ammoniacal fermentation of urea is due to the action of a minute Schizomycete; in 1864 this was confirmed by van Tieghem, and in 1874 by Cohn, who named the organism Micrococcus ureae.
In 1870 Pasteur had proved that a disease of silkworms was due to an organism of the nature of a bacterium; and in 1871 Oertel showed that a Micrococcus already known to exist in diphtheria is intimately concerned in producing that disease.
C. Zoogloea stage of a Micrococcus, forming a close membrane on infusion - Pasteur's Mycoderma.
The cause of this luminosity is Micrococcus phosphorens, an immotile round, or almost round organism.