3?8 SPECIFIC MICRO-ORGANISMS - 



Other Acid-proof Organisms. — Many of the streptothrices 

 which grow in the soil and upon plants are to some extent similar 

 in their staining properties to the tubercle bacillus and when 

 broken up into short segments may be a source of. confusion. 

 These are most likely to be met with in examining agricultural 

 products and especially in the feces of cattle. Mere microscopic 

 examination of such materials for tubercle bacilli has, as a rule, 

 little value, as both positive and negative findings are question- 

 able. Brem,^ in the Canal Zone, has made the important obser- 

 vation that acid-proof bacilli may grow in distilled water stored 

 in bottles in the laboratory and that, when such water is used in 

 preparing the microscopic objects for examination, these extrane- 

 ous bacilli may be mistaken for tubercle baciUi. Burvill -Holmes^ 

 has made similar observations at Philadelphia. Pseudo-bacilli, 

 microscopic bodies somewhat resembling tubercle bacilli, some 

 times occur in microscopic preparations stained with carbol- 

 fuchsin. These deceptive pictures seem to be common in prepa- 

 rations of laked or digested blood. ^ 



' Journ.- A. M. A., 1909, Vol. LIII, pp. 909-911. 

 2 Proc. Path. Soc. Phila., 1910, N. S. Vol. XIII, pp. 154-160. 

 ' Calmette, Sixth Internat. Cong, on Tuberculosis, 1908, Spec. Vol., p. 70; see 

 also Bacmeister, Kahn and Kessler, Miinch. med. Wochenschr., Feb. 18, 1913. 



