ACTINOMYCOSIS. 



to change, and by the end of a fortnight there wa> an appnviable 

 increase in size. Numerous cover-glas> pqpmtioM u.-iv , n; ,,|,. 

 from what was originally a single grain, an.l on examination b] 

 method of Gram the appearance was very striking. Then- omld be 

 no doubt as to the increase of the mycelial structure. Tin- . 

 masses of filaments covered almast the whole ami of the prepara 

 In parts less thickly covered there were very iiuim-ron- oya ] 

 holies, and rod-like segments with terminal enlargement-. i 

 crocus'' forms corresponded with the appearances previously de- 

 scril>ed as met with in the interior of certain clubs. From t; 

 would appear that some other condition is nere.-sary for the develop- 

 ment of the fully formed club, which is the result of the -heath 

 undergoing some change, possibly mucilaginous, resulting in the 

 formation of a thick investment of the clubbed mass of protopla-m 

 at the end of the thread. 



The.-e cluh-shaped bodies represent organs of fructification, rather 

 than the results of degeneration or death. The difficulty in accept- 

 ing the view of their being entirely lifeless forms lies in the fact that 

 the author has observed daughter-clubs growing from the mature 

 clubs; and, further, in the bovine fungus the author ha> been 

 able to trace the stages in the development of a single dub to a 

 completely formed rosette. 



In the unstained condition, the clubs are found, on the whole, to 

 be very regular in their form and arrangement, and by certain 

 staining methods they can be shown to have a somewhat complex 

 structure. If we take all the characters into account, and par- 

 ticularly the minute structure and the relation to each other of the 

 threads and clubs, we are justified in the opinion that the club in 

 the early stages is an integral part of the living fungus, and that 

 these characters bring the fungus into relation with a higher gi 

 of micro-fungi, Basidiomycetes, although the filam. nled 



by themselves, correspond with the characters of Streptothrix. The 

 life-history of the micro-organism may be summed up thu- : 



The spores sprout into excessively line. straight, or sinuoii.-, and 

 sometimes distinctly spirilliform thre.ids, which branch irr.-_rularly 

 and sometimes dichotomously. The extremities of the branches 

 develop the club-shaped bodies. The clubs are cl<- -1; to- 



gether, so that a more or less globular body is formed, with 

 core composed of a dense mass of threads The tin . be 



differentiated by the method of Gram into ... -nd 



protoplasmic contents. The club-shaped bo.ly externally a; 

 be mucilaginous, while internally it i- c.,ntinuou- with Ui . -m 



