OTHEE ACID-PAST BACILLI 



285 



lie obtained from manure and therefore called the " Mistbaoillus " (dung 

 bacillus). This organism has analogous characters, though presenting 

 minor differences. It also produces pathogenic effects. 



Petri and Rabinowitch independently cultivated an acid-fast bacillus 

 from butter ("butter bacillus"), in which it occurs with comparative 

 frequency. The organism resembles the tubercle bacillus, although it is 

 on the whole shorter and thicker. Its lesions closely resemble tuber- 

 culosis, especially when injection of the organism is made into the 

 peritoneal cavity of guinea-pigs, along with butter, — the method usually 

 adopted in searching for tubercle bacilli in butter. - This organism 

 produces pretty rapidly a wrinkled growth (Fig. 82, 6) not unlike that 

 of Moeller's grass'bacillu's II. Korn has also obtained other two bacilli 

 from butter which he holds to be' 

 distinct from one another and 

 from Rabinowitch's bacillus. The 

 points of distinction are of a 

 minor character. Other more or 

 less similar bacilli have been 

 cultivated by Tobler, Coggi, and 

 others. a 



Another bacillus of consider- 

 able interest is Johne's bacillus or 

 the bacillus of "chronic bovine 

 pseudo - tuberculous enteritis," 

 the lesions produced by it being 

 corrugated thickenings of the 

 mucous membrane, especially of 

 the small intestine. The disease 

 has now been observed in various 

 countries, and has been found 

 to be comparatively common in 

 Britain. The bacilli occur in 

 large numbers in the lesions, 

 the cells being often packed 

 within them, and can readily be 

 found in scrapings from the sur- 

 face. They resemble the tubercle 

 bacillus in appearance, but are 

 distinctly shorter ; they are 

 equally acid-fast. The organism has been cultivated by Twort and 

 Ingram on egg medium to which there is added £-1 per cent, of dried 

 and powdered acid-fast bacilli, the Timothy-grass bacillus being most 

 suitable ; growth is slow, the colonies appearing after about four weeks 

 in the primary cultures. 



Smegma Bacillus. — This organism is of importance, as in form and 

 staining reaction it somewhat resembles the tubercle bacillus and may be 

 mistaken for it. It occurs often in large numbers in the smegma prae- 

 putiale and in the region of the external genitals, especially where there is 

 an accumulation of fatty matter from the secretions. Morphologically it 

 is a slender, slightly curved organism, like the tubercle bacillus, but 

 usually distinctly shorter (Fig. 83). Like the tubercle bacillus, it stains 



Fig. 82. — Cultures of acid-fast bacilli 

 grown at room temperature. 



(ft) Moeller's Timothy-grass bacillus I. 

 (&) The Petri-Rabinowitch butter bacillus. 

 (c) Bacillus of fish tuberculosis. 



1 For further details on this subject, vide Potet, 1ituil.es sur Us bacillcs dites 

 acidophiles. Paris, 1902. 



