STREPTOTHRIX ACTINOMYCES BOVIS 105 



micrograph, Fig. 33). Undulating or spiral rods are sometimes observed, 

 but rarely in agar cultures. 



In Egg Cultures beautiful net-like masses of threads occur ; the threads 

 at the periphery of the mass radiating, the ends being sometimes swollen 

 and club-shaped. 



The threads and also the short rods stain both by the Gram method 

 and with fuchsin. When the threads are stained one hour in water 

 fuchsin segments are sometimes observed, consisting of long and short 

 rods, and short coccoid-like bodies arranged in an irregular manner, and 

 separated by unstained interspaces of various breadths. Finally, micro- 

 coccus-like bodies are also found in agar and egg cultures, isolated in 

 clusters of various sizes. They are sometimes clubbed or oval, some- 

 times more irregular and angular, staining intensely with gentian 

 violet and by the Gram method. Inoculated in fresh media they give 

 rise to fresh rods and threads. 



Vitality. It remains living in cultures from nine to twelve months. 

 It is killed by heating five minutes at 75 C. 



Pathogenesis. Johne transmitted the disease to the cow and 

 the calf by subcutaneous intraperitoneal and mammary inoculation. 

 Ponfick and Israel also transmitted it to the calf and to the rabbit. 

 Israel made his inoculation with the actinomycosis of man, the 

 results being the same as those obtained with tumours from cattle. 

 Accidental contamination is also recorded in persons attending affected 

 animals. 



The disease is supposed to be communicated to susceptible animals 

 (Omnivora and Herbivora) by means of their food, especially straw 

 and barley husks. Johne found an identical fungus on the surface 

 of husks of barley, arrested on the tonsils of a healthy pig. Piana 

 also discovered vegetable debris accompanying the actinomyces in a 

 tumour in the tongue. In a case of abdominal actinomyces in the 

 human subject, Ammentorp, in opening one of the abscesses, found in 

 its centre a pin- sized concretion, in the middle of which a piece of 

 barley awn was visible about 2 cm. long. A similar case was also 

 observed in the Clinic at Vienna. In this instance the patient also 

 suffered from abdominal actinomycosis, and a faecal stone which was 

 found in the patient contained at its centre a barley awn. Nocard 

 records a case in a stableman kicked by a horse where a phlegmon 

 developed in the upper part of the thigh, in which microscopic 

 examination revealed the characteristic tufts of the actinomyces. 

 The actinomyces affecting man is distinguished from that of cattle 

 by its tendency to form tumours, and the slow manner in which the 

 disease spreads in the surrounding structures, the newly formed 



