FAMILY LACTOBACTERIACEAE 



365 



early literature (Buchanan, Systematic 

 Bact., 1925, 345-353; Thj0tta, Hart- 

 mann and B0e, Norske Videnkaps Akad. 

 i Oslo, I, Math. -Nat. Klasse, No. 5, 

 1939, 41 pp.) or reviews of the voluminous 

 studies of the past thirty jears (Rose- 

 bury, Bact. Rev., 8, 1944, 198) fail to 

 clear away all of the confusion that has 

 arisen. 



Some investigators, such as Heim 

 (Sitzber. d. phj'sik.-med. Soz. in 

 Erlangen for 1922-23, 54, 1925, 121) and 

 his co-workers, grew the mouth strepto- 

 cocci readily and thought them important 

 as the cause of dental caries. Others 

 following the lead of Kligler (Jour. Allied 

 Dental Soc, 10, 1915, 282 and 445) and 

 Wherry and Oliver (Jour. Inf. Dis., 19, 

 1916, 299) have found the most important 

 organisms of caries to be the long, Gram- 

 positive, granular, non-motile rods that 

 grow like lactobacilli. But even here 

 it is not altogether clear whether 

 the high acid-producing (Bacillvs aci- 

 dophilus odontnlyticus Mcintosh, James 

 and Lazarus-Barlow, British Jour. 

 Exper. Path., 3, 1922, 145) or the low 

 acid-producing tj'pe {Leptothtichia buc- 

 calis Thj0tta et al., loc. cit., 31) of rods 

 really represents the Leptothrix buccaUs 

 of earl J' observers. Some observers, 

 e. g., Balleid (Brit. Dent. Jour., 48, 

 1925, 289), have even identified a branch- 

 ing organism of the mouth, Actinomyces 

 israeli, as Leptotrichia buccalis accord- 

 ing to Roseburj'' {loc. cit., 200). 



As these mouth organisms are appar- 

 ently better placed in other genera so 

 far as they have been definitely identi- 

 fied, the genus and the species that have 

 been described as belonging in it are 

 merelj' listed here. 



Genus A. Leptotrichia Trevisan. 

 (Trevisan, Reale Istituto Lombardo 

 di Scienze e Lettere, Ser. II, 4, 1879, 

 147 ; not Leptothrix Kiitzing, Phycologica 

 Generalis, 1843, 198; Bacteriopsis Trevi- 

 san, Atti della Accad. Fisio-Medico- 

 Statistica in Milano, Ser. IV, 3, 1885, 



103; Rasmussenia De Toni and Trevisan, 

 in Saccardo, Sylloge Fungorum, 8, 1889, 

 930; Syncrotis Enderlein, Sitzber. Gesell. 

 Naturf. Freunde, Berlin, 1917, 312.) 



The type species is Leptotrichia 

 buccalis (Robin) Trevisan. 



Leptotrichia buccalis (Robin) Trevisan. 

 {Leptothrix buccalis Robin, Histoire 

 naturelle des v^g^taux parasites, Paris, 

 1853, 354; Trevisan, Reale Istituto 

 Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere, Ser. II, 

 4, 1879, 147; Leptothrix III, Rasmus- 

 sen, Om Dryckning of Microorganismer 

 fra Spyt of sunde jVIannesker, 1883; 

 Rasmussenia buccalis De Toni and 

 Trevisan, in Saccardo, Sylloge Fungorum, 

 8, 1889, 930; Bacterium buccale Migula, 

 Syst. d. Bakt., 2, 1900, 445; not Lepto- 

 thrix buccalis Chester, Manual Determ. 

 Bakt., 1901, 371; not Bacillus buccalis 

 Chester, ibid., 234; not Bacillus buccalis 

 Trevisan, I generi e le specie delle Bat- 

 teriacee, 1889, 15; Syncrotis buccalis 

 Enderlein, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturf. 

 Freunde, Berlin, 1917, 312; Bacillus 

 buccalis Holland, Jour. Bact., 5, 1920, 

 217.) From the mouth. 



Other species that have been associated 

 with this genus are as follows : 



Bacillus maximus buccalis Miller. 

 (Deutsche med. Wchnschr., 14, 1888, 612; 

 Bacillus buccalis Trevisan, I generi e le 

 specie delle Batteriacee, 1889, 15.) From 

 the mouth. Regarded by Goadby (The 

 Mycology of the Mouth, London, 1903) 

 and by Kligler (Jour. Allied Dental Soc, 

 10, 1915, 152) as a spore-former. 



Leptothrix asteroide Mendel. (Compt. 

 rend. Soc. Biol., Paris, 81, 1918, 471-475.) 

 From the mouth. Rosebury (Bact. Rev., 

 8, 1944, 202) thinks this Gram-negative, 

 anaerobic organism belongs in Bacteroides 

 Castellani and Chalmers. 



Leptothrix anaerobius tenuis Lewko- 

 wicz. (Arch. m^d. exp. anat. path., 

 13, 1901, 633; Leptothrix tenuis Weinberg 

 et al., Les Microbes Ana6robies, 1937, 

 844; Pseudoleptothrix tenuis Pr^vot, 

 Ann. Inst. Past., 60, 1938, 301.) From 

 mouths of infants. 



