256 



TUBERCULOSIS. 



Petri and Rabinowitsch independently cultivated an acid-fast bacillus from 



butter ("butter bacillus"), in which 

 it occurs with comparative frequency. 

 This organism resembles the tubercle 

 bacillus, although it is on the whole 

 shorter and thicker. Its lesions closely 

 resemble tuberculosis, 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. 94, b) not 

 unlike that of Moeller's grass bacillus II. 

 Korn also has obtained other two bacilli 

 from butter which he holds to be distinct 

 from one anotherand from Rabinowitsch '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. ^ 

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

 ing reaction it somewhat resembles the tubercle bacillus and may be mistaken 

 for it. It occurs often in large numbers in the smegma pra:putiale and in the 

 region of the external genitals, espe- 



FlG. 94. — Cultures of acid-fast bacilli 

 grown at room temperature. 



{a) Moeller's Timothy-grass bacillus I. 

 {b) The Petri-Rabinowitsch butter-bacillus. 

 {c) Bacillus of fish tuberculosis. 



«-^---' 

 'W- 



■^\ 



4~ r- 







cially 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. 95). Like the tubercle bacillus 

 it stains with some difficulty and resists 

 decolorisation with strong minei'al 

 acids. IVIost observers ascribe the 

 latter fact to the fatty matter with 

 which it is surrounded, and find that 

 if the specimen is treated with alcohol 

 the organism is easily decolorised. 

 Czaplewski, however, who claims to 

 have cultivated it on various media, 

 finds that in culture it shows resist- 

 ance to decolorisation both with alco- 

 hol and with acids, and considers, therefore, that the reaction is not due to 

 the surrounding fatty medium. We have found that in smegma it can be 

 readily decolorised by a minute's exposure to alcohol after the usual treat- 



V 



Fig. 95. — Smegma bacilli. Film prep- 

 aration of smegma. Ziehl-Neelsen stain. 

 X 1000. 



^ For further details on this subject, vide Potet, 

 acidophiles." Paris, 1902. 



' Etudes sur les bacilles dites 



