TUBERCULOSIS OF FISH, ETC. 



613 



The disease attacks especially the intestines, mesen- 

 tery and liver, in which are found hard, yellowish-white 

 nodules, often rich in lime salts, and varying in size 

 from that of a pea to that of a walnut. These condi- 

 tions suggest the intestines as the infection atrium. The 

 foci are rich in bacilli and histologically show the es- 

 sential characteristics of tuberculosis. 



"Bacillus tuberculosis piscium" is the name given to Tuberculosis 

 an acid-fast organism resembling the tubercle bacillus * Fish, Etc. 

 which was cultivated from an inflammatory tumor in 

 the abdominal wall of a carp. It grows well at low tem- 

 peratures, the optimum being 25 C., is found in large 

 numbers in the lesions within giant cells, and is dis- 

 tinctly pathogenic for frogs. Certain authors state that 

 the human bacillus when inoculated into the frog under- 

 goes changes in its cultural and pathogenic characteris- 

 tics, eventually resembling the organism cultivated from 

 fish. 



Similar bacilli have been cultivated from a form of 

 tuberculosis in the turtle (Friedman), and Blindsch- 

 leiche blind worm (Moeller). 



OTHER ORGANISMS RESEMBLING THE TUBERCLE BACILLUS. 



Certain other organisms of low pathogenicity resemble 

 the tubercle bacillus in their acid-fast properties, their 

 ability to grow in the form of branching threads, and to 

 produce tubercular or nodular infections of a local na- 

 ture in animals. They may be placed in a group which 

 includes the tubercle bacillus. 



C. Fraenkel, also Neufeld, recognize in smegna two smegma Bac- 

 acid-fast bacilli, calling one "tuberculoid" because of its illns and tiie 

 morphologic resemblance to the tubercle bacillus, and the Bacillus of 

 other "diphtheroid" since it shows the pleomorphism of 

 the diphtheria bacillus. One of these organisms may be 

 identical with the "syphilis bacillus" of Lustgarten. 

 Smegma bacilli are most numerous beneath the prepuce 

 in man and about the clitoris and vulva in women. 

 Their chief significance lies in the danger that they may 

 be mistaken for tubercle bacilli in suspected cases of 

 genitourinary tuberculosis. Smegma bacilli may readily 

 enter the urethra in women and be carried into the blad- 

 der during catheterization or cystoscopic examination. 

 In man the danger of bacteriologic error may be elimi- 

 nated largely by cleansing the glans and carefully irrigat- 

 ing the urethra. Urine which is then passed is not likely 

 to contain smegma bacilli (Young and Churchman). 



