572 Tuberculosis. 



man and animals and, in exceptional cases, in pathological tissues, e. g., 

 pearly nodules of tuberculosis. 



Of the acid-fast bacilli now known the following may be men- 

 tioned: The Petri-Rabinowitsch butter bacillus which was found in 

 52.9% of butter samples and in 6.3% of milk samples by Petri, in 

 Berlin, and by Rabinowitsch in 33 '/c of butter samples in Berlin and 

 in 26% of butter samples in Philadelphia; Korn's bacillus friburgensis, 

 once found in butter; Moeller's milk bacillus, found once in a culture 

 made from butter; Moeller's Bacterium Phlei, found by the discoverer 

 on timothy grass and later also on other grasses; Moeller's grass bacillus 

 and dung bacillus found in the dust of dwellings and in manure. Later 

 on the dung bacillus was also found in the excrement of cattle, horses, 

 mules and swine ; — Moeller 's pearl disease bacillus, which Moeller culti- 

 vated from pearl growths of cattle and swine; — an acid-fast liacillus 

 which Preisz found in the nasal secretion of an ox suspected of having 

 pearl disease; — Binot's butter bacillus; — Beck's Bac. tuberculoides I, 

 from milk and Bac. tuberculoides II cultivated from the tonsils of a 

 tuberculous woman, etc. — In addition to these, acid-fast bacilli were 

 demonstrated : By Cowie in the smegma of the horse, ox and dog as well 

 as in the epithelium of the udder of the cow; by DeJong in the milk 

 of cows with udder tuberculosis and by others in various substances, 

 comparatively frequently in sputum of human beings with pulmonary 

 tuberculosis or pulmonary gangrene. 



Acid-fast bacilli have certain common characteristics which make 

 it possible to differentiate them from tubercle bacilli. According to 

 the comparative investigations of Aujeszky these characteristics are as 

 follows: Morphologically the paratubercle bacilli in general resemble 

 the tubercle bacillus and like the latter they constitute transition forms 

 leading to the streptothrix species. The great majority is less acid-fast 

 than the tubercle bacillus and they are also easily stained by the simple 

 anilin dyes ; some of them are acid-fast only and not alcohol-fast, others 

 show the same tinctorial characteristics as the tubercle bacillus; in 

 cultures on artificial media, in contrast to the tubercle bacillus, they 

 grow rapidly and, with few exceptions, grow luxuriantly also at room 

 temperature ; their cultures are moist and shiny and have a brighter 

 color than tubercle bacillus cultures, often a yellowish-red color; on 

 the surface of bouillon a massive membrane forms within a few days 

 and they frequently emit a pungent odor suggesting decaying vegetation 

 or ammonia. 



Most paratubercle bacilli exert a slight pathogenic action on ex- 

 periment animals. This action, however, usually does not manifest itself 

 unless the cultures are administered in conjunction with some "envelop- 

 ing" substance like sterilized butter or oil. If thus administered intra- 

 peritoneally they usually produce an exudative peritonitis wiiich often 

 leads to massive accumulation of deposits and to adhesions ; in addition to 

 this, pseudo-tubercles make their appearance which differ from true 

 tubercles in that they do not become caseous, or only rarely so, but 

 have more a tendency to become purulent or become organized ; in ex- 

 ceptional cases only do they contain cells of Langhans; finally — and 

 this is perhaps the most important difference — inoculation with these 

 forms produces only local inflammatory processes which do not progress 

 from the primary foci. (The bacillus of chronic paratuberculous en- 

 teritis of cattle seems to occupy a unique position in this respect which 

 is true also of its cultures.) 



In spite of these important differences between these bacteria and 



