CULTIVATION OF ACTINOMYCES 



329 



instance the organism grew only under anaerobic conditions and 

 presented the characters described above. They also obtained 

 the same organism in culture from the disease in the ox. 

 Henry also has cultivated from actinomycotic meningitis an 

 organism which is a strict anaerobe and which corresponds in its 

 characters. 



Inoculation with the organism of Israel and Wolff in various 

 animals, including guinea-pigs and rabbits, has given rise to 

 granulomatous nodules, in which the characteristic granules are 

 present, though the lesions usually have not a progressive 

 character. 



(3) Actinobacillus {Lignieres and Spitz). — This organism was 

 cultivated by these 

 observers from a 

 number of cases of 

 actinomycosis in the 

 ox, in which no fila- 

 ments could be de- 

 tected in the granules. 

 It grows readily on 

 most ordinary media. 

 It is a small bacillus, 

 measuring about 1 o p 

 in length and P 4 ^ 

 in thickness, Gram- 

 negative and non- 

 motile. On agar it 

 forms in the primary 

 cultures rounded 

 semi-transparent colonies which reach 1*5 mm. in- diameter; in 

 sub-cultures it forms a continuous layer of similar character. 

 Subcutaneous injection in the sheep and ox, and intraperitoneal 

 injection in the guinea-pig, gave rise to lesions in which the 

 characteristic granules with clubs are reproduced. These results 

 have been substantially confirmed in this country by F. Griffiths, 

 who obtained a similar organism in twenty-three out of forty 

 cases of actinomycosis from the Argentine. 



Varieties of Actinomyces and Allied Forms. — Gasperini has described 

 several varieties of aclinomyces bovis according to the colour 'of the 

 growths, and a similar condition may obtain in the case of the human 

 subject. 'Furthermore, a considerable number of streptothrices have been 

 found in cases of disease in the human subjent, the associated lesions 

 varying in character from tubercle-like nodules on the one hand to 

 suppurative processes on the other. The organisms cultivated from such 

 sources differ according to their microscopic characters (for example, some 



Fig. 96. — Section of a colony of actinomyces 

 from a culture in blood serum, showirg the 

 formation of clubs at the periphery, x 1500. 



