488 SUMMARY OF CURRENT KKSEAKCHES RELATING TO 



them as to their morphology, pathogenicity, and their relation to the 

 tubercle bacillus. He classes them according to their pigment produc- 

 tion on artificial media into three groups: Str. albus, Str. flavus, and 

 Str. violaceus. Those of the first group are not acid-fast, those of the 

 second group only slightly so, whereas those of the third group are 

 completely acid-fast. Among the first series two were pathogenic for 

 animals with lesions indistinguishable from tuberculosis ; in the second 

 group none were pathogenic ; and in the third group almost all gave 

 virulent cultures pathogenic for animals, and producing tuberculous 

 lesions containing acid-fast organisms. 



Renal Tuberculosis in a Carp.* — Hautefeuille describes a case of 

 tuberculosis in a carp. For some weeks it had presented a tumour the 

 size of a nut, on either side of the body about the region of the posterior 

 orifice, and below the lateral line ; the tumour was covered by the in- 

 teguments, was soft and fluctuating, that on the left side was slightly 

 larger, and had two small ulcerations, from which exuded a thick 

 yellowish liquid which was found to contain a large number of small 

 bacilli 3 /i to 6/1 long, some being free, others being included in the 

 cells ; these rods stained only faintly by ordinary dyes, but after half an 

 hour in warm or cold carbol-fuchsin they resisted decoloration by chlor- 

 hydrate of anilin. Various media were inoculated from the contents of 

 the tumour, and incubated at 37° C. and 25° C. The autopsy of the 

 animal showed that the alimentary canal, liver, spleen, and branchii were 

 healthy, but in the heart blood were found many bacilli. The kidneys 

 were found to be incorporated in the pathogenic tissue of the tumour on 

 either side ; this tissue consisted of a gelatinous mass of small embryonic 

 cells and many giant cells, all containing bacilli, and side by side with 

 these were renal glomeruli. 



The cultures that were incubated at 37° C. gave negative results, but 

 those at 25° C. commenced on the third day. In broth there was no 

 cloudiness, but a flocculent deposit, which was more vigorous in glycerin- 

 glucose broth ; on potato there appeared on the fourth day round yellow- 

 white granular colonies with a wrinkled and slightly fatty aspect ; growth 

 was less vigorous on agar, the milky white colonies not appearing till 

 the fifth day ; no growth was obtained on gelatin direct, but by sub- 

 culturing on gelatin from the first broth tube, and incubating at 12° C, 

 faintly visible colonies appeared on the eighteenth day ; the gelatin was 

 never liquefied ; sub-cultures on potato at 32° C. grew at the end of four 

 days. The bacilli of the cultures presented the same characters as those 

 seen in the tissue ; in the older cultures they were larger and sometimes 

 showed branched forms ; they stained very feebly with the ordinary 

 dyes, but resisted the decoloration by dilute acids ; the odour of the 

 older cultures reminded one of that of peach blossom. 



Carp of the same species inoculated with the pulp of the tumour 

 died at the end of six days, with bacilli in the heart blood, liver, kidney, 

 and spleen, but no reproduction of a similar tumour could be obtained. 

 A frog inoculated intraperitoneally with the pulp of the tumour died 

 after two months with bacilli in the blood, and numerous granulations 

 in the peritoneum ; a second frog survived only three weeks ; a sub- 



* Mem. Soc. Linn. (Amiens, 1904), p. 223. 



