﻿496 MUSGRAVE AND CLEGG. 



similar to those which have been given by other authors. The description of 

 the granules is very clear and Wright states that when bleached and softened by 

 solutions of sodium hypochlorite or of potassium hydroxide, they are "found to 

 consist of a mass of fungus structures, together with more or less brown, pig- 

 mented imbedding or investing material, as described and figured by Boyce and 

 Surveyor." No spores were observed and the test for haeinin in the granules was 

 negative. The latter were deeply stained by the basic aniline dyes, but not by 

 haematoxylin. "The Gram stain and the Weigert fibrin stain, or modifications 

 of them, stain the substance of the granules to a variable extent depending on 

 the amount of the decolorizing agents applied." Wright cultivated a ''Hypho- 

 mycete" from approximately twenty-five of sixty-five of the black granules. 

 Slapylococcus albus also grew in most of his cultures. The growth developed from 

 the granule used in inoculation and appeared after an interval of four or five 

 days or even later. Growth occurred as follows in most of the media used : 



Potato. — A dense, widely spreading, coherent layer of velvety surface ; pale 

 brown in the central portion and white at the edges. Small droplets of dark, 

 coffee-colored fluid develop on the surface of the cultures. The medium becomes 

 dark brown and very moist. 



Bouillon. — Growth proceeds from the inoculated material in fine, radiating 

 filaments and produces a puffball-like appearance, and eventually the whole fluid 

 is filled up with radiating mycelia, the fluid becomes a deep coffee-brown color 

 and a mycelium layer develops on the surface. 



Potato infusion (20 grams boiled in water, with a finished filtered product of 

 1,000 cubic centimeters and not neutralized). — Growth is much the same as in 

 bouillon, but no surface layer appears and in old cultures there are found 

 numerous, black granules about 1 millimeter or less in diameter in the midst of 

 the mycelium. 



"These granules consist of closely packed, spherical or polyhedral cells, together 

 with some short, thick, segmented hyphae. The walls of these cells have a black 

 appearance and masses of them are black and opaque under the microscope. 

 Wright considered these granules to be "masses of interlacing hyphae whose 

 segments have been much shortened, and widened and otherwise changed." They 

 were examined by W. G. Farlow and pronounced to be 'Sclerotia.' 



Agar (plain and glucose). — "Growth appears as a mesh work of widely 

 spreading filaments, of grayish color, on the surface of the medium." "Sclerotia" 

 develop in old cultures, and in slant cultures growth only takes place on the 

 surface. 



Morphologically the Eyphomycete consists of long, branching hyphae from 3 to 

 8 ix in diameter. Young forms show delicate transverse septa and older ones 

 swellings at the points of branching and the hyphae may appear as a string of 

 oval-ended, plump segments. The filaments have a definite wall and branching 

 occurs by lateral budding. No spore-bearing organs were observed. 



Animal inoculations. — "No results were obtained from the inoculation of 

 animals with the original granules or with cultures." 



Histology. — "The tissues composing the nodules consist essentially of a forma- 

 tion of more or less atypical connective tissue in various stages of development 

 in which foci of suppuration are present in association with granules. 



"Some of the granules lie in small cavities containing polynuclear leucocytes, 

 loose epithelial cells and cellular detritus. These cavities may be lined either by 

 a wall of vascular granulation tissue or by massess of epithelioid cells, together 

 with multinucleated giant cells. Other granules are closely invested by a zone of 

 epithelioid and giant cells, and outside of this there may be an infiltration with 

 lymphoid and plasma cells. The nodule thus formed about the granule resembles 



