THE ACTINOMYCOSES 



2135 



This description by Cornwall leaves no doubt in our minds that 

 he met with Vincent's organism in a case of the ochroid variety of 

 mycetoma, and if this is correct, then Kanthack's name assumes its 

 priority and Vincent's becomes a synonym, and the correct name of 

 the fungus is Nocardia indica (Kanthack, 1893) , and this is supported 

 by Strong's culture of the same fungus from an Indian mycetoma 

 in 1908. 



With regard to the remaining history of the fungus, it should be 

 noted that in 1898 Legrain, and in 1899 Brault, again described its 

 presence in Algeria, while in 1901 Albertini and Desvernine reported 

 its presence in Cuba, and in 1902 Brumpt discovered that it existed 

 in Abyssinia, while Sommer y Greco demonstrated its presence in 

 the Argentine in 1904, and Williamson in Cyprus in 1905, in which 

 year Brumpt, in his classic on Mycetomas, stated that he had 

 obtained it from India, Somaliland, and Senegal. 



In the same year, Pelletier described a case of mycetoma with 

 red grains which he saw in Saint Louis, in Senegal. The grains 

 were very small, from 0*4 to 0-5 millimetre in diameter, and of 

 a beautiful vermilion red colour. In the same year Laveran 

 published a paper upon Pelletier's mycetoma, in which he says that 

 it was possible on making sections of the tumour to easily discern 

 therein little red spots of variable size which stood out from the 

 surrounding neoplasm. These grains contained a large number of 

 Gram-positive micrococcal-like bodies embedded in a ground 

 substance. These bodies, which measured 07 micron in diameter, 

 were never found isolated, but always in masses or short chains. 

 No trace of a mycelium could be seen, and for this reason he gave 

 it the name of Micrococcus pelletieri Laveran, 1906. But coccal-like 

 forms are commonly found in nocardial infections, and in 1912 

 Thiroux and Pelletier reported that this red mycetoma was fairly 

 common in Senegal, where one of them had met with eight cases, 

 from one of which, a suppurating tumour of the right side of the 

 chest, they obtained cultures on Sabouraud's medium which very 

 much resembled those of N. madum, but differed therefrom in the 

 following particulars: — 



1. The growths were ruby red from their commencement. 



2. It had only so far been grown on Sabouraud's gelatine. 



3. The growths did not penetrate into the gelatine, and were 

 easily detached. 



4. In the parasitic stage the organism takes the form of a micro- 

 coccus in zooglea. 



They renamed the parasite Oospora pelletieri. In the discussion 

 on this paper, Laveran agreed with Thiroux and Pelletier's finding, 

 and Pinoy pointed out that the only real differences between it and 

 N. madurcB were the greater intensity of the red colour and the 

 more abundant sporulation. Further, he sugg^^ted that the correct 

 name was Nocardia pelletieri. Under these circumstances, iV. 

 pelletieri would become simply a synonym of N . indica s of which 

 the full list of synonyms has been given on p. 1058. 



