FAMILY MYCOBACTERIACEAE 



877 



II. Saprophytes or parasites on cold-blooded animals ; grow rapidly on most media. 

 A. Fail to survive 60°C for 1 hour. 

 1. Fail to grow at 47°C. 



a. Unable to utilize sorbitol. 



6. Mycobacterium piscium. 



7. Mycobacterium marinum, 



8. Mycobacterium ranae. 



9. Mycobacterium thamnopheos. 



aa. Utilize sorbitol. 



2. Grows at 47°C. 



10. Mycobacteriu?n friedmannii. 



11. Mycobacterium spp. 



12. Mycobacterium lacticola. 

 Survives 60°C for 1 hour; grows at 47°C. 



13. Mycobacterium phlei. 



1. Mycobacterium tuberculosis 



(Schroeter) Lehmann and Neumann. 

 (Tuberkelbacillen, Koch, Mitteil. a.d. 

 kaiserlich. Gesundheitsamte, 2, 1884, 6; 

 Bacillus tuberculosis Schroeter, in Cohn, 

 Kryptogamen Flora v. Schlesien, 3, 1886, 

 164; Bacillus tuberculosis Fliigge, Die 

 Mikroorganismen, 2 Aufi., 1886, 208; 

 Coccothrix tuberculosis Lutz, Dermatol. 

 Studien, 1, 1886, 22; Sclerothrix kochii 

 Metchnikoff, Arch. f. path. Anat. u. 

 Physiol., 113, 1888, 70; Bacterium tuber- 

 culosis Migula, in Engler and Prantl, 

 Die nattirlichen Pflanzenfamilien, I 

 Abt., la, 1895, 23; Lehmann and Neu- 

 mann, Bakt. Diag., 1 Aufi., 2, 1896, 363; 

 Bacillus kochii, quoted from Lehmann 

 and Neumann, idem; Discomyces tubcrcu- 

 losus (sic), quoted from Neveu-Lemaire, 

 Precis de Parasitol. Humaine, 5th ed., 

 1921, 25; Sclerothrix tuberculosis Vuille- 

 min,Encyclopedie Mycologique, Paris, ^, 

 1931, lM;Eu7nyces tuberculosis Battaglia, 

 Soc. Internaz. Microbiol. Boll. Sez. 

 Ital., 10, 1938, 166.) From M. L. tuber- 

 culosis, tuberculosis. 



Two varieties of this species are com- 

 monly recognized, the human and the 

 bovine. 



la. Mycobacterium tuberculosis var. 

 hominis Lehmann and Neumann. (Hu- 

 man tubercle bacilli, Th. Smith, Trans. 

 Assoc. Am. Phys., 11, 1896, 75; Myco- 

 bacterium tuberculosis typus humanus 

 Lehmann and Neumann, Bakt. Diag., 



4 Aufi., 2, 1907, 550.) From Latin 

 hominis, of man. 



Common name : Human tubercle ba- 

 cillus. 



Description from Koch (loc. cit.) and 

 Topley and Wilson (Princip. of Bact. and 

 Immun., London, 2nd ed., 1936, 315). 



Rods, ranging in size from 0.3 to 0.6 

 by 0.5 to 4.0 microns, straight or slightly 

 curved, occurring singly and in occa- 

 sional threads. Sometimes swollen, cla- 

 vate or even branched. Stain uniformly 

 or irregularly, showing banded or beaded 

 forms. Acid-fast and acid-alcohol -fast. 

 Gram-positive. Growth in all media is 

 slow, requiring several weeks for de- 

 velopment . 



This bacterium contains mycolic acid 

 (Stodola, Lesuk, and Anderson, Jour. 

 Biol. Chem., 136, 1938, 505-513). The 

 acid-fast mycolic acid combines more 

 firmly with carbol-auramin than with 

 carbol-fuchsin and this apparently ac- 

 counts for the increased sensitivity of 

 fluorescence microscopy for this bac- 

 terium (Richards, Science, 93, 1941, 190; 

 Richards, Kline, and Leach, Amer. Rev. 

 Tuberc, U, 1941, 255-266). 



Nutrient agar: No growth. 



Glycerol agar colonies : Raised, thick, 

 cream-colored, with a nodular or wrinkled 

 surface and irregular thin margin. 



Glycerol agar slant: After 4 weeks, 

 raised, thick, confluent, cream-colored 

 gro^'th. 



Nutrient broth : No growth. 



