BACTERIUM ULCERIS CANCROSL 207 



The organisms are very particular as to cultivation. 

 They grow best upon ascites-agar as small transparent 

 droplets ; upon ordinary agar, a growth is rarely obtained. 

 Pure, solidified blood-serum is slowly liquefied on the sur- 

 face. Cultures have little durability. It causes a con- 

 junctivitis, usually insidious in onset and running a 

 chronic course with slight catarrhal symptoms, abundant 

 secretion, and redness of the conjunctiva, especially upon 

 the edges of the lids and inner angle of the eye. The 

 organism is found abundantly in the secretion (Fig. 17). 

 The disease may be transferred by means of pure cultures 

 to healthy individuals. It has been found infrequently 

 in various places as the cause of epidemics ; also, on one 

 occasion, in Wiirzburg. 



Bacterium ulceris cancrosi (Ducrey=Kruse), L. and N. 



Synonyms. — Streptobacillus of soft-chancre Ducrey, Bacillus ulceris 

 cancrosi Kruse. 



Literature. — Ducrey (C. B. xvm, 290), Petersen (C. B. XIII, 743), 

 Unna (C. B. XVIII, 234), Kruse (Fliigge-Kruse, Bd. II, 456). 



It is now universally acknowledged that Ducrey rightly 

 recognized a small, thin bacterium (0.5 v broad, 1.5 y. 

 long), arranged in long chains, which can be demon- 

 strated, with no great difficulty, in sections of soft chancre 

 as the cause of the process. By successive inoculation of 

 chancre secretion from one place on the skin to others, in 

 each resulting ulcer a purer condition is found. Staining 

 of the sections with Loffler's methylene-blue is not espe- 

 cially difficult, if the alcohol is allowed to act very briefly. 



The bacteria are not stained by Gram's method. They 

 are also found in the chancre secretion, but only rarely in 

 the contents of buboes. Cultures are rarely successful ; 

 Petersen obtained non-characteristic, faintly growing col- 

 onies deep in serum-agar. 



