Moeller's Grass Bacillus 349 



Bouillon. The growth forms a dry white scum upon the 

 surface, the medium remaining clear. 



Pathogenesis. So far as is known, the smegma bacillus 

 is a harmless saprophyte. 



MOKLLER'S GRASS BACILLUS. 



Bacilli found in milk, butter, timothy hay, cow-dung, etc., 

 which stain like the tubercle bacillus and may be mistaken 

 for it, have been described by Moeller.* The organisms so 

 closely resemble the tubercle bacillus that guinea-pig inocu- 

 lations must be resorted to in cases of doubt, but as some of 

 these organisms sometimes kill the guinea-pigs after a 

 month or two, and as small nodules or tubercles may be 

 present in the mesentery, peritoneum, liver, lung, etc., of 

 such animals, the diagnosis may have to be subjected to the 

 further confirmation of a histologic examination of the 

 lesions in order to exclude tuberculosis. In cases of this 

 kind it should not be forgotten that the tubercle bacillus 

 can be present in the substances mentioned, so that the 

 exact differentiation becomes a very fine one. An instruc- 

 tive study of these organisms has been made by Abbott 

 and Gildersleeve,f who, in an elaborate work upon the 

 "Etiological Significance of the Acid-resisting Group of 

 Bacteria, and the Evidence in Favor of their Botanical 

 Relation to Bacillus Tuberculosis," a work that gives com- 

 plete references to the literature of the subject, come to the 

 following conclusions : 



1. That the majority of the acid-resisting bacteria may 

 be distinguished from true tubercle bacilli by their inability 

 to resist decolorization by a 30 per cent, solution of nitric 

 acid in water. 



2. That some of the acid-resisting bacteria are capable 

 of causing in rabbits and guinea-pigs nodular lesions sug- 

 gestive of tubercles; that these lesions, while often very 

 much like tubercles in their histologic structure, may 

 nevertheless usually be distinguished from them by the 

 following peculiarities : 



(a) When occurring as a result of intravenous inocula- 

 tion, they are always seen in the kidneys, only occasionally 

 in the lungs, and practically not at all in the other organs. 



* "Deutsche med. Zeitung," 1898, p. 135; " Deutsche med. Wochen- 

 schrift," 1898, p. 376, etc. 



t "Univ. of Pa. Bulletin," June, 1902. 



