SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 219 



A KEVIEW OF PISCINE TUBERCLE, WITH A 

 DESCRIPTION OF AN ACID-FAST BACILLUS 

 FOUND IN THE COD. 



By D. Moore Alexander, M.D., 



Assistant Lecturer in Bacteriology, The University, 



Liverpool. 



The literature concerning the occurrence of tuber- 

 culosis amongst cold-blooded animals is extremely scanty, 

 and with one exception relates to the inhabitants of fresh 

 water. 



In 1897 Bataillon, Dubard and Terre published an 

 account of an organism found in a granulomatous tumour 

 of a carp, and Terre, in 1902, reported more fully upon the 

 subject. This bacillus was non-motile and acid-fast, its 

 optimum temperature of growth lay between 23°-25°C, 

 though it would grow at 12° C. ; it belonged to the 

 streptothrix family, as it showed branched forms, and 

 in most respects agreed with the characteristics associated 

 with the tubercle bacillus. 



Apparently identical with this organism is one 

 isolated by Moller from the spleen of a blind-worm 

 which had been infected a year previously with the 

 sputum of a tuberculous patient. Moller's bacillus has 

 an optimum temperature of 22° C, development ceasing 

 at 28° C. It grows upon ordinary agar to form a 

 glistening white growth. In broth and upon albumen- 

 free media it shows branching of its filaments. It is 

 non-pathogenic for, and non-transmissible to, rabbits. 



Kuster (1905) found tuberculosis in three frogs out 

 of 200 examined. The organism grew well at 28° C, 

 was pathogenic for frogs and other cold-blooded animals, 

 and was toxic, but not pathogenic, for warm-blooded 

 animals. 



