362 TUBERCULOSIS AS A TYPE OF BACTERIAL DISEASE 



The cultures appear as moist, thick, creamy, wrinkled layers of growth 

 on the surface of the medium. The bacillus renders broth turbid and 

 acid. Indol is also produced, and a disagreeable odour. The growth 

 is slow on gelatine, occurring as small granular colonies. It is non- 

 liquefying. On glycerine agar, growth is abundant, rapid, and char- 

 acteristic. It occurs as a creamy film of a light golden colour 

 moist, thick, and much wrinkled (see Plate). It possesses a 

 glistening appearance, and an unpleasant odour These characters 

 disappear after much sub-culturing. Milk is not coagulated. A dull 

 dry growth generally occurs on potato. The organism possesses less 

 virulence when inoculated in pure culture. But when inoculated 

 with, or without, butter, it has clearly defined effects. Giant cells, 

 nests of epithelioid cells, and typical tuberculous cassation are, 

 according to Eabinowitsch, never to be found in the foci of disease 

 set up by this bacillus. None of the animals injected with this 

 bacillus reacted to tuberculin. The intra-peritoneal injection of pure 

 cultures often produces a formation of nodules in the abdominal 

 organs which frequently heal. If, however, the animals are killed in 

 three or four weeks, the following characteristics are found, namely, 

 slightly distended abdomen, more or less severe peritonitis, nodules 

 on mesentery and beneath the intestinal serosa, mesenteric glands 

 enlarged, and liver, spleen, and kidneys showing small nodules with 

 yellowish exudation. When the butter itself containing the organisms 

 is used, a fatal result often follows the injection after three to fifteen 

 days. Similar changes to the above have occurred, but of a more 

 intense degree. Kabinowitsch found rabbits insusceptible in contrast 

 to guinea-pigs. It is not known whether this bacillus is in any 

 degree pathogenic for man. But probably such is not the case. It 

 appears to be widely distributed in nature, as 60 per cent, of butter 

 samples in Berlin were found to contain it. The only satisfactory 

 way to differentiate this bacillus from the tubercle bacillus is by 

 inoculation of animals. 



Moeller isolated a somewhat similar organism from milk, 

 which is generally known as Moellcr's Milch Bacillus. It was found 

 in pasteurised milk at Belzig, and is almost identical in morphology 

 to the tubercle bacillus. It is acid-fast, non-motile, and grows at 

 room temperature as well as blood-heat. Broth becomes but little 

 turbid, and there is no deposit. Surface membrane of fatty aspect 

 and amber colour, adherent to tube walls, is sometimes formed. On 

 gelatine plates and tubes a white wrinkled culture of creamy nature 

 occurs, and on glycerine agar, after about three weeks, the growth is 

 white, uniform, and of a creamy nature, though at times slightly 

 wrinkled, and dry. In old cultures it is dry, or glazed, and of a 

 yellowish colour, which later turns to a reddish tint, the culture 

 itself becoming of a wrinkled appearance. Frequently the raised 



