254 



THE ACTINOMYCETES, Vol. I 



In 1896, Kruse named this organism >S^rep- 

 tothrix israeli. Wright, in 1905, suggested 

 changing the name to Actinomyces bovis, 

 since he considered this organism to be iden- 

 tical with that recorded b.v Harz. It is of 

 interest to quote from Wright : 



"Branching filamentous micro-organisms have 

 been isolated in pure culture from thirteen cases 

 of actinomycosis in man and two cases in cattle. 

 The micro-organism seems to be all of one spe- 

 cies — grows well only in agar and bouillon cultures 

 and in the incubator; in the other usual culture 

 media and at room temperature, it grows onlj' 

 very little or not at all. It is essentially an an- 

 aerobe. It does not form spore-like reproductive 

 elements." 



Wright added: 



"In cultures its colonies are similar in char- 

 acter to colonies of the microorganism in the 

 lesions of actinomycosis. If colonies of the micro- 

 organism are immersed in animal fluids, such as 

 blood serum and serous pleuritic fluid, the fila- 

 ments of the colonies in immediate contact with 

 the fluid may, under certain unknown conditions, 

 become invested with a layer of hyaline eosin- 

 staining material of varying thickness, and the 

 filament may then disappear. Thus structures are 

 produced that seem to be identical with the char- 

 acteristic 'clubs' of actinomyces colonies in the 

 lesions." 



Figure 99. N. asteroides in sputum (Repro- 

 duced from: Kirby, W. M. M. and McXaught, 

 J. B. Arch. Internal Med. 78: 8, 19-16). 



Wright emphasized further: 



"Between Actinomyces from the hvmian and 

 bovine cases I have found no difference which 

 seems to me to be sufficient to justify their classi- 

 fication as separate species. 



"I do not accept the prevalent belief, based on 

 the work of Bostroem, Gasperini, and others, that 

 the specific infectious agent of actinomycosis is to 

 be found among certain branching microorgan- 

 isms, widely disseminated in the outer world, 

 which differ profoundly from Actinomijces bovis in 

 having spore-like reproductive elements. I think 

 that these should be grouped together as a sepa- 

 rate genus with the name of Nocardia, and that 

 those cases of undoubted infection by them should 

 be called nocardiosis and not actinomj^cosis. The 

 term actinomycosis should be used only for those 

 inflammatory processes the lesions of which con- 

 tain the characteristic granules or 'drusen.' 



"Because the microorganism here described 

 does not grow well on all the ordinarj- culture 

 media and practically not at all at room tempera- 

 ture, I did not believe that it has its usual habitat 

 outside of the body. It seems to me very probable 

 that Actinomyces bovis is a normal inhabitant of 

 the secretions of the buccal cavity and of the 

 gastro-intestinal tract, both of man and animals, 

 but I have no proof of this to offer at the present 

 time. In these secretions it should not exist in the 

 characteristic forms seen in the lesions, but it 

 probably will be found in the form of fragmented 

 filaments growing in company with bacteria, and 

 not now differentiated from them. I believe that 

 the part played by foreign bodies so frequently 

 found in actinomycotic lesions is not that of the 

 carrier of the microorganism into the tissues from 

 without, l)ut that the foreign body, bj' its trau- 

 matic and irritative effect furnishes a nidus in the 

 tissues for Actinomyces which enters therein with 

 the secretions from the buccal cavity and gastro- 

 intestinal tract, develops into characteristic 

 colonies, and produces lesions which we call 

 actinomycosis." 



Coleljrook (1920) considered as actinomy- 

 cosis only those cases that sho\ved suppura- 

 tive lesions, the pus of which contained 

 "granules" visible to the naked eye and com- 

 posed of a framework of a filamentous organ- 

 ism. He did not follow Wright in considering 

 the presence of "clubs" ("ray-formation") 

 at the periphery of the granules as an abso- 



