520 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



During the past few years there has been considerable 

 discussion as to the identity of the botryococcus. Some re- 

 gard it as a special parasite quite distinguishable from the 

 rest, while others, on the contrary, consider it a variety of 

 the staphylococcus. Up to the present time there is nothing 

 to demonstrate the exactness of the latter hypothesis. De 

 Jong tried in vain to make botryococci from staphylococci. 

 By injecting botryomyces subcutaneously into the horse a 

 mycofibroma is produced, while the staphylococci produce 

 only a transient inflammation, or an abscess. 



Kitt has established that the pigment of the staphylococ- 

 cus aureus is stable, while that of the botryomyces is, on the 

 contrary, absolutely variable. 



At i8°C. on agar the botryomyces gives orange colored 

 colonies. If this very culture is resown and the temperature 

 is raised to 37° C, it becomes v/hite in twenty-four hours. 

 When brought back to i8° it becomes yellow and finally or- 

 ange yellow. 



In 1897 Poncet and Dor found the botryomyces in some 

 pediculated, frambcesioid tumors of the human fingers and 

 hand, and they tried to identify them with scirrhous cords of 

 animals. The identity, however, has yet to be demonstrated, 

 in spite of the opinions of some writers. The scirrhous cords 

 of animals and the tumors of man are two dififerent lesions, 

 even though the same parasite is found in both. Poncet and 

 Dor state that they found muriform bodies in recent tumors, 

 which is again incorrect, as botryomyces are found only in 

 the old lesions that have already been hollowed-out by 

 fistula. This fact leads to the inference that the tumor is 

 not primarily due to the botryococcus, but th^t it appears on 

 the scene later. They have also advanced the hypothesis 

 that the botryococcus is the product of cellular degeneration, 

 that makes its appearance in the nucleus and grows larger 

 by degrees as the protoplasm disappears ; but this reasoning 



