904 THE HIGHER BACTERIA, MOLDS AND FUNGI 



NOCARDIA 



Streptothrix, Cladothrix, Oospora, Discomyces. This genus in- 

 cludes a large group of aerobic organisms which grow in branch- 

 ing filaments made up of bacteria-like units. English medical 

 writers more frequently refer to them as streptothrices, but, as the 

 name Streptothrix is applied to a group of common saprophytjc fungi 

 with coarse filaments, it cannot be properly used for these organisms. 

 Saprophytic varieties of nocardia are numerous and pathogenic strains 

 have also been reported as the cause of varied infections in man and 

 animals. Nocard 9 described a member of this group as the etiological 

 factor in a glanders-like disease, "farcin du boeuf," occurring in 

 Guadeloupe, which he called actinomyces farcinica. The first human 

 case was that of Eppinger, 10 who cultivated from a brain abscess an 

 organism which he called Cladothrix asteroides on account of the 

 star-like appearance of the young colonies on agar. He also found 

 the organisms in sections of the bronchial lymph-nodes and believed 

 the invasion had occurred through the respiratory tract. Since then 

 a number of fatal systemic infections due to similar organisms have 

 been described by Petruschky, 11 Berestnew, 12 Flexner, 13 MacCallum, 14 

 Norris and Larkin 15 and others, and an apparently identical organism 

 was isolated by Musgrave and Clegg in a case of Madura foot. A 

 summary of the various cases up to 1921 has been made by Henrici 

 and Gardner (J. Infect. Dis., 1921, xxviii, 232). In most of these 

 cases the portal of entry was the respiratory tract, but a few began 

 as wound infections. Strains from various cases have been considered 

 by some to be identical, by others to represent a number of closely 

 related species. 



Morphology. Morphologically the nocardice show considerable 

 variation. In material from infectious lesions they have most often 

 appeared as rods and filaments with well-marked branching. Occa- 

 sionally the filaments are long and intertwined, and branches have 



9 Nocard, Ann. de 1'inst. Pasteur, ii, 1888. 



10 Eppinger, Wien. klin. Woch,, 1890. 



11 Petruschky, Verhandl. <1. Kongr. f. iiniere Mediz., 1898. 

 "Berestneff, Zeit. f. Hyg., xxix, 1898. 



13 Flexner, Jour. Exp. Med., iii, 1896. 



14 MacCallum, W. E., Centralbl. f. Bakt., I, O, 1902, xxxi, 529. 



15 Norris and Larkin, Proc. of N. Y. Path. Soc., March, 1899. 



