ACTINOMYCOSIS. 423 



lobe of the left lung there was a cavity the size of the fist, which 

 had been opened, and the contents had, for the most part, escaped ; 

 what remained was a greyish, purulent liquid, full of yellowish 

 bodies. By the side of this cavity there was another collection of 

 pus, the size of a walnut. In the lower part of the second lobe of 

 the right lung there was a firm, grey tumour, the size of a hen's 

 egg, over which the pleura was much thickened. On section this 

 was cavernous, with similar purulent contents, and yellow grains. 

 These grains under the microscope proved to be ray-f ungL . The wall 

 of the cavity consisted of dense connective tissue lined with a soft 

 granulation tissue, bathed in pus. There was no disease of anj' 

 other parts in this case, so that it corresponded in this respect with 

 the two previous ones. Pusch adds that it was difficult to determine 

 whether the organism had gained access to the lungs by the blood- 

 vessels, or by the inspired air. In his case he incHned to the latter 

 view, and concludes by sa3dng that the organism is probably ver}- 

 common and attached to the most varied objects, from which it 

 may be conveyed by the air. 



Pusch refers in the same paper to an interesting case which 

 occurred in the practice of Eggehng. The latter had under his care 

 a cow with extensive paralysis. The spinal cord was compressed 

 by a compact sweUing in the neck, consisting of the nodules of 

 actinomycosis. There were no manifestations of disease in any other 

 part of the body. 



Prevalence of tlm Disease. — The author found that the disease 

 was not generally recognised as a common affection of cattle 

 in this country, in spite of the interast excited by the work of 

 Fleming, to whom is due the credit of first recognising a case in 

 England. In 1887 there was a disease prevaihng in Norfolk, and 

 in the following year outbreaks were investigated by the author 

 in E.s-sex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Middlesex. In the 

 Norfolk outbreak the author found on one farm 8 per cent, of the 

 beasts affected with the so-called " wens " or " sitfasts," which 

 proved on microscopical examination to be cases of actinomycosis. 

 These growths had previously been described in veterinary text-books 

 as the result of strumous or scrofulous inflammation ; but in all 

 the specimens of wens received from this country and the colonies, 

 the author has been able to demonstrate the presence of the ray- 

 fungus. 



A case of pulmonary actinomycosis, with grape-like growths on 

 the pleura, indicated that wens were not the only manifestation of 

 this disease, which had teen lost sight of under the designation of 



