414 ACTINOMYCETES. 



(rl) Cold: It is borne very well; for example, winter 

 cold for twenty-one days by bouillon cultures. 



(e) Disinfectants : Injure slowly, especially T. B. which 

 are found in sputum; 3% carbolic acid, for example, kills 

 T. B. only after twenty hours. 



An extensive survey of the tenacity of the T. B. is given 

 by Schneiderlin, Dis. med., Freiburg, 1897. 



Chemical Activities. (a) No chromogenesis or pro- 

 duction of odoriferous substances. 



(b) Cellulose is formed in distinction to many other 

 investigated bacilli. 



(c) Indol and H 2 S production were not observed in our 

 cultures. 



(d) Regarding toxins, see page 417. 

 Distribution. (a) Outside the body : So far, found only 



in living rooms (dust of railroad cars, street dust, etc.) in 

 places where tubercular cases have deposited their sputum. 

 In the air they are seldom found, and then are isolated. 

 They are very frequently found in milk. A third of 

 tubercular cows furnish, even when the udder is healthy, 

 milk containing T. B. Still there is great variation. While 

 the butter of a large Berlin dealer contained T. B. in the 

 butter in 100% of the cases (Obermiiller, H. R., 1897, 

 712), thirteen other establishments in Berlin were proved 

 to furnish butter free from T. B. (Rabinowitsch, C. B. 

 xxv, 77). 



(b) In the healthy body : Very many apparently healthy 

 individuals, men and animals (cows), present at autopsy 

 smaller or larger, often completely healed tubercular foci. 

 Of such men there are said to be 66% with latent or 

 healed tubercular foci; and of these, it is the principal dis- 

 ease in 53%, a secondary affection in 6%, and entirely 

 latent in 41% (Schlenker). Healthy nurses and physi- 

 cians of tubercular patients are said to often show T. B. 

 in the nasal mucus. 



(c) In diseased human organism: 1 It occurs as the ex- 

 clusive and essential cause of miliary tuberculosis, of bone, 

 gland, and joint tuberculosis (caries, fungous inflammation, 

 white swelling, etc.), of lupus (tuberculosis of the skin), 



1 Regarding cases of men affected with fowl tuberculosis, see page 

 419. 



