iiisroHicAi- M\('i<(;i{(trNn 



1. Colin's woi'k on act iiKiinycclcs, and toi- 

 that niattci" on Itactcria in i>;(>n(M-al, was coni- 

 plrtoly lu'jilcctcd by ncai-ly all botanists fol- 

 lowing him. i'^cn so outstaiidiiiiz; a itotaiiist 

 as Rohind Thaxtcr, who about 1 "> years later 

 studi(Hl another group of actinoniycctos, 

 nanu'ly, the oi'ganisms causing i)otato seal), 

 called them fungi (Oospora scabies), com- 

 pletely o\-erlooking their close relationship 

 to the bactcM'ia. 



2. The second cii'cumstance had to do 

 with the fact that the role of microbes as 

 causative agents of infectious diseases had 

 just come to be recognized as a result of the 

 brilliant work of Louis Pasteur, Robert 

 Koch, and numerous others. It was but nat- 

 ural that diseases caused by actinomycetes 

 should also soon begin to attract attention. 

 In 187(), Bollinger observed branching mj^- 

 celium in the diseased jaw of a cow and recog- 

 nized that a microbe was the causative agent 

 of the disease. He handed this material to 

 Harz, who examined the granules and ol)- 

 served the characteristic radiation, with the 

 result described above. Simultaneously, J. 

 Israel examined granules containing similar 

 mycelium in two pathologic specimens of 

 man; unfortunately, he was confused by the 

 presence of secondary infections due to 

 staphylococci. It was Ponfick, in 1879, who 

 definitely established the role of actinomy- 

 cetes as causative agents of human diseases. 

 Israel's first clinical account appeared in 

 1885. Wolff working in collaboration with 

 Israel soon established the anaerobic nature 

 of the organism. 



These pioneering studies were follow^ed by 

 the careful work of Gasperini and others who 

 interpreted clearly the nature of the dis- 

 ease of actinomycosis and the role of actino- 

 mycetes in its causation. 



The study of diseases caused by aerobic 

 actinomycetes in animals and in man also 

 began to receive attention, with the obser- 

 vations of Xocard and Trevisan. I'nfortu- 

 nately, the nature of the causative agents of 



these diseases and t he complex nonicnclat lire 

 that soon exolxcd continued to cause con- 

 fusion for yeai-s. .\.s late as l!)25, Dresel sug- 

 gested that the term "actinomycosis" bo re- 

 ser\-ed for tho.se di.seases that are caused by 

 the anaerobe (Aclinoninccs jsrncli) and that 

 aiiothei' name be selected foi' the di.seases 

 caused by aerolies, in ca.se the name "St rep- 

 tothrix" should finally l)e dis(|ualified. 



I'\)ulei-toii wiote ill lS!)i) that the disease 

 known as "actinomycosis" in cattle and man 

 had long been i-ecognized clinically to be 

 caused by more than one species of actino- 

 myces, infections themseh-es being \-ery simi- 

 lar. Gasperini described three such \ai-ieties 

 or species. Wolff and Israel i.solated from 

 human actinomycosis an organism, "a strep- 

 tothrix fimgus," which differed from "Strep- 

 tothrix actinomycotica" in that the growth 

 under anaerobic conditions was A'crj^ free, 

 whilst in the presence of oxygen it was very 

 scanty. Levy isolated from five actinomyces 

 ca.ses in man an organism which i-e.sembled 

 that of Wolff and Israel in its free growth 

 under anaerobic conditions. Kruse recog- 

 nized two species as causing actinomyco.sis: 

 (1) "Streptothri.v actinomyces" of Rossi-Doria, 

 said to be an "aerobic fungus;" and (2) 

 '^Streptothrix israeli," an "anaerobic fun- 

 gus." A number of other investigators de- 



FiGURE 3. Chil) formation by a culture of A. 

 hovis grown in human blood .serum (Wright, J. H. 

 .J. Med. Research 13:349 404, 1905). 



