Chapter XI — 183 — Human and Animal Diseases 



ganism can be demonstrated in the sputum of infected animals. N. 

 farcifiica, isolated from cattle, forms a yellowish, wrinkled growth on 

 solid media. N. cafrae, isolated from the lung of a goat (402), gives 

 a more whitish growth and greater fragmentation of the mycelium. N. 

 canis produces infection in dogs (310), and is similar to N. cafrae. 



Eppinger, in 1891, reported the isolation of an aerobic, gram-posi- 

 ti^'e, acid-fast actinomvces from the cerebral abscesses and meningeal 

 exudate of a man who became delirious and died in 2 weeks. This 

 organism readily grew on ordinary media in the form of small colonies 

 that were star-like because of the radiating filaments. It has been 

 known since its isolation as Cladothrix asteroides, Streptothrix e-pfingeri, 

 Streptothrix asteroides, Oosfora asteroides, Actinomyces asteroides, and 

 Nocardia asteroides. This group of the aerobic pathogenic actinomy- 

 cetes is the most common. It is the least proteolytic and produces a 

 yellowish to orange, wrinkled growth on solid media; aerial mycelium is 

 white and scant, if formed at all. 



In 1921, Henrici and Gardner collected 26 cases of infections with 

 aerobic acid-fast actinomvcetes. They reported that the causative or- 

 ganisms fell into three different types, which differed chiefly in the 

 color of the growth on solid medium and in other minor biologic char- 

 acters. Twenty-three of these cases were of pulmonary origin, and all 

 but one were fatal. Another form was isolated from the sputum of a 

 patient with a cough of 3 years' duration. It differed somewhat from 

 the other three types, and because of the chalky white appearance of 

 the growth, was named Nocardia gypsoides. After repeated subcul- 

 tures, however, the strain became almost identical with N. asteroides. 



Gordon and Hagan (144) found that some acid-fast actinomycetes 

 isolated from soils and plant material are similar to those found in 

 lesions of men and animals. The pigments produced by these organ- 

 isms range from yellow through orange to coral. One of the soil forms 

 was pathogenic to rabbits soon after isolation, but not to guinea pigs 

 (145). 



Various strains of Nocardia have been described as causative agents 

 of madura foot, a disease usually referred to as "nocardiosis" or "madura- 

 mycosis." These organisms include not only N. madurae, but also N. 

 indica, N. pelletieri, N. mexicaniis, N. hrasiliensis, N. paraguayensis, 

 etc. These strains were identified by their cultural characters on dif- 

 ferent media, production of pigment, by their morphology and staining 

 properties, some being acid-fast. They were all apparendy of the same 

 general type as the other forms of Nocardia listed above. 



The same is probably true of the several strains isolated by Pipper 

 and Pullinger (338), namely N. transvalensis, N. africana and N. 

 pretoriana. These authors assumed that the natural habitat of No- 

 cardia is grass. They ascribed, therefore, the relative frequency of 

 Nocardia infections in South Africa to local conditions and habits, 

 namelv abundance of grass, open-air hfe, scanty clothing and bare foot 



