ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 599 



Actinomyces asteroides.* — MacCalluni defends the generic name of 

 Actinomyces for the group of organisms to which the Actinomyces 

 asteroides belongs, and points out that it is the only appropriate title, 

 and that with the exception of the term Streptoihrix (which had already 

 been applied to a genus of the Hyphomycetes group), it has the additional 

 claim of pi'iority. The organism the author describes was isolated in 

 pure culture, post-mortem, from some caseous masses in the peritoneum 

 of a negro child, and was identical with that described by Eppinger as 

 Cladothrix asteroides. The organism, which was definitely branched, 

 was easily cultivated ; on agar plates it forms discrete, round, opaque, 

 shaggy colonies, which are firm and hard and of a yellow colour, with 

 moist, dull, roughened surface raised and sometimes umbilicated, some- 

 times attaining a diameter of 3-4 mm. On gelatin and on inspissated 

 blood-serum similar colonies are produced ; the medium is not liquefied 

 in either case. In broth a thin pellicle, resembling dust scattered over 

 the surface, appears in 24 hours, and a deposit forms consisting of a 

 coherent filamentous mass entangling minute opaque yellowish- white 

 balls. The bulk of the medium remains clear. In litmus milk a 

 yellowish granular sediment forms, accompanied by the production of a 

 marked alkaline reaction ; no peptonisation of the medium occurs. On 

 potato a dull greyish-red film appears after 24 hours, which becomes 

 thicker and more nodular in appearance, and after a time on the upper 

 drier portions of the potato a chalky-white bloom appears on the elevated 

 points of the cultivation which may ultimately extend over the whole 

 surface. The organisms stained by Gram's method and showed distinct 

 granules when treated by Neisser's method. Filamentous growth with 

 distinct branching, also clubbed and coccus forms were noted, but no 

 evidence of spore formation could be obtained by staining methods. 

 This Actinomyces is a strict aerobe, does not produce gas, optimum 

 temperature appears to be about 37° C, thermal death-point for coccus 

 forms 65° C. for 10 minutes, and for the thread-forms 70° C. for a similar 

 period. 



Eabbits and guinea-pigs are susceptible to intravenous, intraperi- 

 toneal, or subcutaneous inoculation of this actinomyces, dying in from 

 a few hours to 10 days. Dogs and mice are also susceptible. The 

 pathogenic effects of the organism were studied most fully on the rabbit, 

 in which animal it produces widely disseminated focal lesions containing 

 characteristic ray-fungus forms, consisting of elongated cylindrical struc- 

 tures with laterally radiating clubs which are probably degenerating 

 forms. 



The metastatic abscesses begin with a focal degeneration and necrosis 

 of tissue, associated with an extensive accumulation of leucocytes, all ot 

 which in turn undergo necrosis and are walled off by a capsule of 

 vascular granulation tissue in which giant-cells olten occur. 



Botryomycosis-t — Oalli Valerio reviews the work of previous 

 observers on the subject of botryomycosis, and describes a recent case 

 (which came under his own observation) occurring in a farm labourer, in 

 the form of a pedunculated tumour some 2-5 cm. in diameter, situated 

 on and involving the skin of the right forearm. 



• Centralbl. Bakt., 1" Abt., xxxi. (1902) pp. 529-47. i Tom. eit., pp. 508-21. 



