THE TUBERCLE BACILLUS 501 



a young man dead of tuberculosis, a microorganism which, culturally, 

 morphologically, and in its pathogenic action upon birds, seemed to 

 belong to the avian type. Lowenstein 1 describes a similar organism 

 cultivated from a human case which seems to be a transitional type. 

 Observations of this order are, however, too few at the present time to 

 be used as the basis of a definite opinion as to the relationship between 

 the two varieties. 



Tuberculosis in Cold-blooded Animals. The bacillus isolated by 

 Dubarre and Terre 2 resembles Bacillus tuberculosis in morphology and 

 in a certain degree of acid-fastness. It grows at low temperatures, 

 15 to 30 C. It is non-pathogenic for animals, but kills frogs within a 

 month. Except for the acid-fastness it has little in common with 

 Bacillus tuberculosis. 



Similar acid-fast bacilli have been isolated from other cold-blooded 

 animals (carp, frogs, turtles, snakes) by many observers. 



There have been many attempts to show a close relationship between 

 the tubercle bacilli of cold-blooded and those of warm-blooded animals. 

 Moeller, Hansemann, Friedmann, Weber, Kiister, and others have 

 given this subject particular attention and it has gained especial interest 

 because of the recent notorious claims of Friedmann that he has suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining, from turtles, a strain of acid-fast bacilli which can 

 be successfully used in actively immunizing human beings. In 1903 

 Friedmann 3 described two cases of spontaneous infection of a salt-water 

 turtle (Chelone corticata) with acid-fast bacilli, presenting lesions in 

 the lungs which simulated pulmonary tuberculosis in the human being 

 (cavity formation and miliary nodules) . The organisms cultivated from 

 these lesions presented much similarity to those of the human type and, 

 according to Friedmann, 4 unlike other acid-fast bacilli of cold-blooded 

 animals, could be grown at 37.5 C. As a possible human origin for the 

 turtle infections Friedmann mentions that the attendant who fed these 

 turtles suffered from a double pulmonary tuberculosis. 



Upon inoculation into guinea-pigs localized lesions only were pro- 

 duced, and dogs, rats, and birds were immune. The implication of 

 Friedmann's work is that his culture represents a human strain attenu- 



1 Lowenstein, quoted from Koch and Rabinovitsch, loc. cit. 



2 Dubarre et Terre, Compt. rend, de la soc. de biol., 1897. 



3 Friedmann, D. Med. Woch., No. 2, Jan.,. 1903, 25. 



4 Friedmann, D. Med. Woch., No. 26, 464, 1903, and Centralbl. f. Bakt., I, xxxiv, 

 1903, also Zeitschr. f. Tuberkulose, iv, Heft 5, 1903. 



