Experimental Actinomycosis. 



255 



113 (1860) 



Potassium iodide does not influence the course of an experimental 



actinomycosis. 



By A. T. HENRICI and G. S. REYNOLDS. 



[From the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, the Univer- 

 sity of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.] 



It is generally believed that iodides are almost specific in their 

 favorable influence upon the course of various mycoses, notably 

 sporotrichosis, aspergillosis, "blastomycosis," and actinomycosis. 

 There can be no question about the value of iodides in sporotri- 

 chosis, but concerning the other mycoses reports are not so 

 uniform. It is generally believed, however, that the iodides may 

 cure actinomycosis, particularly in cattle. 1 



Some of the fungi are not virulent for lower animals, and most 

 of the others rapidly lose their virulence when cultivated, so that 

 little experimental work has been done. Renon 2 found that 

 Aspergillus fumigatus grew in culture media containing as much 

 as 10 per cent, of potassium iodide; but that inoculated rabbits 

 treated by subcutaneous injections of the salt did not die until 26 

 and 32 days after infection, whereas the control died in 4 days. 

 Davis 3 found that in experimental sporotrichosis the injection of 

 iodides previous to or simultaneous with inoculation had no 

 inhibiting effect on the course of the disease; but when adminis- 

 tered after the infection is under way, the lesions heal. He also 

 found that Sporotrichum would grow in media containing consider- 

 able quantities of iodide. 



Henrici and Gardner 4 have isolated from a case of pulmonary 

 infection a variety of Actinomyces very similar to but not quite 

 identical with A. asteroides Eppinger, which they named A. 

 gypsoides. This fungus is very virulent for guinea pigs, and has 

 maintained its virulence quite unaltered for several years. It is 



1 Salmon, D. E. t Eighth and Ninth Annual Reports of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, Washington, 1893. 



a Renon, L., "Etude sur l'Aspergillose chez les Animaux et chez I'Homme," 

 1897. 



3 Davis, D. J., Jour, of Inf. Dis., 1919, xxviii, 124. 



* Henrici, A. T., and Gardner, E. L., Jour, of Inf. Dis., 1921, xxviii, 232. 



