I 



ACTINOMYCES CABNEUS. 451 



(6) Magnified fifty times : When very young they are 

 delicate, star-like, branching figures; later there gradually 

 develops a denser, opaque center, with a delicate, ramifying 

 peripheral zone. 



Sugar-agar. — Stab : After twenty-four hours there is a 

 small, whitish wart upon the surface, which gradually 

 grows into a slightly elevated disk with a somewhat 

 wrinkled surface and brownish-yellow color. The wrink- 

 ling, elevation, and extension of the growth increase for a 

 long time; the periphery presents a delicate, flat, radially 

 wrinkled border. In the stab there is only slight growth 

 in the upper part. Upon ordinary agar the growth is more 

 feeble and paler in color. 



Bouillon Culture. — Delicate surface pellicle with white 

 granules. The latter grow downward as tough masses (re- 

 sembling drops of stearin), and then fall to the bottom, 

 where a rich mass of the fungus gradually accumulates. 

 The bouillon always remains perfectly clear. 



Potato Culture. — At first a coarsely granular fillet, 

 made up of snow-white nipples, and by degrees becoming 

 wrinkled and brick-red. After about fourteen days a deli- 

 cate, white, hairy covering develops at the periphery and 

 gradually covers the entire red growth. 



Spores. — Nothing is known regarding the resistance of 

 the short segments known as ' ' spores. ' ' 



Distribution. — Found by Eppinger on only one occa- 

 sion in the lymph-glands, and especially in a brain abscess 

 and in the cerebral and spinal meninges of a glass-grinder, 

 where it apparently was the cause of the disease. 



Pathogenic Effects. — When introduced in various ways, 

 it causes in animals (guinea-pigs, rabbits) a fatal disease re- 

 sembling tuberculosis. (Pseudotuberculosis cladothrich- 

 ica. ) It has been shown by Lubarsch that it can form in 

 animals colonies which are deceptively like actinomyces. 



Actinomyces carneus. (Rossi Doria.) Gasperini. 



Streptothrix carnea Rossi Doria. Closely related to the 

 Act. asteroides. However, 'gelatin and agar cultures show 

 distinct air mycelium, which gives the gelatin culture a 

 pink, and the agar culture from a flesh to a reddish- 



