52 



THE ACTINOMYCETES, Vol. I 



thrix as a generic designation among the bac- 

 teria as invalid. 



We hoped that Buchanan's final decision 

 would stand. Unfortunately, this was not 

 the case. As recently as 193G, Woytek still 

 considered Strcptothrix as the proper designa- 

 tion for the anaerobic pathogens and still 

 reserved the name Actinomyces for the 

 aerobic saprophytes. Erikson (19-10) was 

 most emphatic in directing attention to this 

 historical misinterpretation. 



Actinomyces 



The name Actinomijces is the most com- 

 mon one used to designate a group of actino- 

 mycetes. As pointed out above, it was first 

 used by Harz for a genus of thread-forming 

 bacteria observed in the pus of cattle affected 

 by "lumpy jaw." The pus consisted of 

 granules made up of "slender filaments, ir- 

 regularly branched, radiating from the 

 center, and with the ends of the filaments in 

 the form of refractive swellings." The Greek 

 word Actinoynyces means ray-fungus. Harz 

 never grew this organism in pure culture, 

 but he noted that it is the causati\'e agent of 

 actinomycotic infections in animals. 



Various subsequent investigators adopted 

 this name for the actinomycetes as a whole. 

 Trevisan, however, recognized the relation- 

 ship between organisms described as Strcp- 

 tothrix and Actinomyces, and suggested 

 discarding both these names in favor of 

 Nocardia. Among those who used the name 

 Actinomyces for actinomycetes as a whole, 

 should be mentioned Gasperini (1895), 

 Lachner-Sandoval (1898), Levy (1899), 

 Berestnew (1899), and later Lehmann and 

 Neumann (in the editions of their book 

 subsequent to 1896), Orla-Jensen, Waksman 

 (in his early work and in the early editions of 

 the Bergey Manual), and Krassilnikov. 



Stokes (1904) examined the \^ari()us ge- 

 neric names proposed for the pathogenic 

 actinomycetes and came to the conclusion 

 that the name Actinom,yces should be used, 



since all the others had been preempted. He 

 classified the genus into seven species: A. 

 bovis, A. asteroides, A. israeli, A. nocardi, A. 

 madurae, A. caprae, A. vesicae. 



As pointed out above, Wright proposed 

 limiting the name Actinomyces to the para- 

 sitic forms which produce rays in tissues; 

 he used the name Nocardia for the forms 

 producing aerial mycelium and spores. The 

 same concept was adopted by Jordan. 

 Petruschky accepted the separation of the 

 actinomycetes into two groups, although he 

 preferred the name Strcptothrix to that of 

 Nocardia for the second group. Pinoy also 

 divided the actinomycetes into two groups: 

 Nocardia comprising the aerobic, spore- 

 producing forms, and Cohnistreptothrix 

 (rather than Actinomyces) for the anaerobic, 

 nonsporulating forms. 



Dresel (1925) finally disposed completely 

 of the confusion between (a) the anaerobic 

 organism, as clearly elucidated by the work 

 of Wolff-Israel, causing actinomycosis and 

 producing sulfur granules, for which the 

 generic name Actinomyces Harz must be 

 retained, and (b) the aerobic organisms, 

 comprising some that are widely distributed 

 in nature as saprophytes and others that are 

 able to cause infections. He stated emphati- 

 cally that if the name Strcptothrix cannot be 

 retained for the second group, clearty a new 

 name must be found. This lack of recogni- 

 tion of the distinction among the anaerobes 

 and aerobes has been responsible for much 

 of the confusion in the designation and classi- 

 fication of actinomycetes, beginning with 

 Bostroem's isolation from an actinomycotic 

 infection of a contaminating aerobe and 

 continuing through the work of numerous 

 subsequent investigators. These included 

 such eminent contributors to the subject as 

 Licske, who kept emi)hasizing the change of 

 the anaerobe into an aerobic form, and Kras- 

 silnikov, who refused to conceive of purely 

 anaerobic forms, in spite of the impressive 

 and clear-cut evidence to that effect. 



