CHAPTER XV 



STREPTOTHRIX INFECTIONS ACTINOMYCOSIS MY- 

 CETOMA LEPTOTHRIX BUCCALIS CLADOTHRIX DI- 

 CHOTOMA MYCOSIS TONSILLARIS 



Streptothrix Infections (Streptothricosis) l 



THE Streptotrichese are a group of thread-forming organisms showing 

 true, but not dichotomous, branching. Their exact position in the 

 botanical scale is uncertain ; by some they are considered to belong 

 to the higher Schizomycetes, forming a connecting link between 

 these and the Hyphomycetes ; others place them among the latter, 

 and others make them a separate and distinct group. 



The Streptotrichese form a filamentous network, or mycelium, 

 the individual threads of which show branching, while their terminal 

 portions undergo segmentation, with the formation of rounded 

 bodies regarded as spores. The mycelial network, unless old, 

 stains by Gram's method, and occasionally possesses " acid-fast " 

 properties. The leprosy bacillus apparently sometimes grows as a 

 streptothrix, and the tubercle, glanders, and perhaps diphtheria, 

 bacilli may belong to this group. 



Pathogenic streptothrix forms are not uncommon, the best 

 known being those causing actinomycosis of the ox and other 

 animals and of man, the white variety of mycetoma, the S. Eppingeri, 

 more or less acid-fast, originally isolated from a cerebral abscess, 

 and also causing a variety of madura foot, S. Nocardii of the ox, 

 and S. canis of the dog. Doubtless cases of streptothrix infection 

 in man may occasionally be missed, as the clinical characters closely 

 resemble those of tuberculosis. 



Pinoy 2 distinguishes "Actinomycosis," in which the grains in 

 the pus are formed by very thin, unsegmented mycelial filaments, 



1 See Musgrave, Clegg and Polk, Philippine Jomn. of Science, vol. iii, 

 1908, p. 447 ; Foulertori, Lancet, 1910, vol. i, p. 551, et seq. 



2 Actinomycosis and Mycetoma, Bull, de VInst. Pasteur, xi, 1913, 

 pp. 929, 977. 



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