140 CLASSIFICATION OF THE MICEO-ORGANISMS. 



that could be suspected as a common source of the disease 

 was fodder obtained from a newly tilled field (Bang). 

 Duncker has also found bodies in pork similar to the ray 

 fungus, which however are not, according to Johne, 

 identical with actinomyces. 



Occurrence in Masses of actinomyces have been at times observed n 

 the crypts of the tonsils in man, but here also without 

 any morbid symptoms. Also in various affections 

 accompanied by suppuration, such as abscesses in the 

 neighbourhood of the jaw, in concretions in the lachrymal 

 duct, in severe suppurations which present the clinical 

 picture of a prevertebral phlegmon, or of a peripleuritis 

 with suppuration and metastasis, or of a chronic pysernia. 

 Lately also five cases of peritonitis of actinomycotie 

 origin (per. chronica, parametritis, perityphlitis) have 

 been described by Zemann. In the latter affections the 

 usual point of entrance must be the intestine, in the wall 

 of which fresh nodules and scars can be found, or at times 

 also the Fallopian tubes and the genital apparatus ; in 

 the case of actinomycosis localised on the face and 

 neck, carious teeth, injuries to the jaw, inflammatory 

 processes in the pharynx and tonsils, &c., predispose to 

 the affection. In all the above mentioned cases, different 

 as they were in their clinical picture, the same masses of 

 actinomyces could always be demonstrated in the pus. 



to 1 animiis ion ^ at ^ ^ un g us * s in reality the exciting agent of the 

 disease is rendered much more certain by the inoculation 

 experiments which have been performed with isolated 

 and carefully purified actinomyces masses. The disease 

 has in several instances been reproduced in calves, by 

 introduction of the grains into the subcutaneous tissue, 

 but feeding the animals with them has had no result. 

 Dogs appear to be insusceptible to the disease ; rabbits 

 have recently been successfully inoculated in the peri- 

 toneal cavity by Israel. 



Former cuiti- Repeated attempts have been made to cultivate the 

 fungus, first by Harz, then by Johne, and then by 

 Israel on solidified blood serum, which was intentionally 

 made of soft consistence. The results of these cultiva- 

 tion experiments agree but little with each other, and 



