PSEUDO ACTINOMYCES OF THE UDDER OF THE COW 375 
To try and further determine the point I treated the sections with dilute 
mineral acids. These caused slight effervescence no doubt from the presence of 
calcareous material, but they did not materially alter the structure, when the strength 
of the acid was increased the particles dissolved. Sections treated with dilute caustic 
potash or sodium hypochlorite, reagents which I had found of the greatest use in 
removing the organic matter which completely obscured the structure of the Madura 
fungus, were without effect and in strong solution they caused the particles to dissolve. 
I next dissected out carefully from the original tissue the fungus-like masses, and 
tested for fat, leucin, and tyrosin. The reactions for fat and leucin were negative, 
but I obtained a strong tyrosin reaction by Scherer's Test. 
There appears to me, therefore, to be little doubt that tyrosin is present in con- 
siderable quantity in the crystalline masses, but from the smallness of the material at 
my disposal I could not say whether they were entirely tyrosin masses. 
From the preceding evidence 1 am inclined to believe that the masses are 
crystalline, and composed of some substance of the nature of tyrosin, and that they 
do not represent degenerate forms of the Ray Fungus. Nevertheless, it seems 
remarkable that a crystalline substance could itself excite an inflammatory reaction. 
It may be that a pyogenic organism first started an inflammatory reaction in the 
mamma, and that the deposition of crystalline products was a result of this action. 
On the other hand, crystals are found in tissues associated with considerable signs of 
chronic irritation, such as oxalic acid in the kidney, and sodium urate and guanin in 
connective tissue and cartillage. 
If the inflammation producing body was the Ray Fungus, then its distribution 
in the udder was very peculiar. Every organ in the cow was healthy with the ex- 
ception that there was a hard calcareous nodule of the size of a pea in the lung, which 
microscopic examination showed not to be like the abnormal nodules in the udder. 
The fungus would, therefore, in all probability have gained access to the udder 
through the teat or skin covering the mamma, but there was no inflammatory exten- 
sion from either, nor was there a great mass of inflammatory tissue ; there were simply 
small isolated nodules scattered through a portion of the mamma. The supramam- 
mary and popliteal glands appeared quite normal. 
If, therefore, the case is, as 1 assume it to be, not one of Actinomyces, it shows, 
I think, that care should be taken to very clearly prove the presence of fungus cell 
elements in cases where Actinomyces is reported in an organ like the udder. A 
number of cases have been recorded of Actinomycosis of the udder. Jensen 1 
describes three cases which were very like acute tubercle. I do not think that the 
descriptions are sufficiently complete to enable one to judge whether these cases were 
true Actinomyces or not. In 1886 Hertwig 1 described a curious case of Ray 
1. Jensen. Baumgarteri s Jahresbcricht, 1893. 
2. Hertwig. Archiv. f. Thierheilkunde B. 12, 1886. 
