446 ACTINOMYCETES. 



swellings were formerly described as white swelling, sar- 

 coma of the jaw, spina ventosa, etc. ; the disease of the 

 tongue as ' ' wooden tongue ' ' ; the growth in the lymph- 

 glands as scrofula, etc. 



Experimental Observations Regarding Pathogenic 

 Action. — As opposed to many positive statements, Bos- 

 trom takes the stand emphatically that, in experiments on 

 various animals, a multiplication of the introduced para- 

 sites is never observed, but only an encapsulation of the 

 same. The most recent investigations of Wolff and Israel 

 demonstrate that sometimes the short rods, when intro- 

 duced intraperitoneally, grow out into threads and colo- 

 nies. They did not succeed in producing a grave, progres- 

 sive disease in the experimental rabbits, and after about 

 seven weeks the organisms appear to die out. (Compare 

 Mycobacterium lacticola and phlei, p. 434. ) 



Special Methods for Diagnosis and Cultivation. — 

 Diagnosis : In man very often by recognizing the actino- 

 myces clusters with the naked eye, or at least with the 

 microscope (unstained or with a double stain). 



Cultivation : For diagnostic purposes it is usually unne- 

 cessary. If a culture is to be made, it is best accomplished 

 by means of numerous smears upon serum or ascites-agar, 

 after the contents of the actinomycotic swelling have been 

 thoroughly rubbed up in a mortar. The tubes are to be 

 kept at incubator temperature and protected with rubber 

 caps. 



While Bostrom isolated the organism here described 

 from all cases in men and cattle, Italian investigators 

 especially claim that other closely related varieties may 

 produce the clinical picture of actinomycosis; for example, 

 the " Actinomyces albus Gasp." (See Gasperini, C. B. 

 xv, 684, and p. 455.) The " Cladothrix liquefaciens 

 No. 2" of Garten (C. B. xvm, 287) also stands very close. 

 The Actinomyces musculorum suis Duncker (Zeitschr. 

 f. Mikrosk. und Fleischbeschau III, No. 3), found in Ber- 

 lin in the pale, watery muscles of quite a number of swine, 

 is also related, but it has not been cultivated. There is the 

 formation of clubs, but characteristic clusters are lacking. 



The organism described by Kruse as the Strept. Israeli 

 is quite different. 



