.^ lie Mi;cn ANisMs 



isi 



;i.^ a criteridu tor species ami xaiictal cliar- 

 acterizatioii ot" oi'uanisnis will he discussed in 

 detail in XiA. 11. 



'IMie iuhihilion ot' the i)lia,iie hy clieiuical 

 ajieiits was studied l)v I'erlinan el al. (1 !).")!). 

 Cause ct al. (11)57) reported tliat aetiiiomy- 

 cetes possess the al)ilit.\- to produce antibi- 

 otics which defend tiu>nisel\-es ajj;ainst 

 actinophaji'e action. It was .said that certain 

 substances may defend actinomycetes 

 aijainst lysis by phages and simultaneously 

 display a protective action toward other ac- 

 tinomycetes. Among 1,000 cultures studied, 

 about one-half displayed the ability to hinder 

 actinophage activity, such ability being 

 found both among cultures hindering bac- 

 terial growth and among cultures lacking an- 

 tibacterial action. 



Hemolysin Production 



Waksman (1919) demonstrated that the 

 property of l)ringing about hemolysis of red 

 blood cells is widespread among actinomy- 

 cetes. This property' was found to \ary 

 quantitati\'ely for different organisms. A 

 comparative study of the hemolytic proper- 

 ties of certain pathogenic forms (Waksman, 

 1918) brought out the fact that hemolysis of 

 l)lood in blood agar, liquefaction of blood 

 serum, clotting and subsequent peptonization 

 of milk, and li(iuefaction of gelatin, all run 

 parallel. 



Lieske (1921 ) made a comprehensive study 

 of hemolysin formation by actinomycetes ob- 

 tained from various sources. There was no 

 correlation between this property and the 

 ability of the organisms to liquefy gelatin or 

 to dissolve coagulated egg-albumin. The he- 

 molytic action of actinomycetes was found 

 to be an extracellular phenomenon, occurring 

 during the very early growth of the organ- 

 isms. An active preparation could be ob- 

 tained bj'^ growing the organisms on blood 

 agar plates, extracting the agar with salt so- 



T.MU.K I") 



Ejffict of Hcrcrdl (iclinophtigrs upon dijjcrent 

 Aclinoiiijiccldlcs (Hradlov and .Vndcrsori) 



Lysis of a host l)y a standard plia^c sus|)(Mision 

 is indicated Ijy a plus sign; no lysis is denoted by 

 a minu-s sign. 



* This culture is actually u streptomyces. 



lution, and filtering. Such extracts were cap- 

 able of rapidly dissolving blood suspended in 

 salt solution. The hemolytic activity of the 

 extract was not destroyed by boiling; on the 

 contrary, it was increased by such treatment. 

 It was lost, however, on heating at 120°C in 

 the autocUne. In this respect, it was similar 

 to the hemolysis of certain gram-negative 

 bacteria. This phenomenon suggests that the 

 active substance is not truly enzymatic in 

 nature. Xo antihemolysin could be demon- 

 strated in the normal blood or in a patient 

 suffering from actinomycosis. 



Lieske reached the conclusion that the he- 

 molysin effect was purely accidental and was 

 caused by certain nonenzymatic normal met- 

 abolic prf)ducts of the organisms. He also 

 emphasized the lack of correlation between 

 hemolysin production of microorganisms and 



