ACTINOM Y K08IS. 
123 
tine, and muscles. Death seems to result from chronic pyaemia, 
or from exhaustion, as a consequence of protracted and pernicious 
suppurations. In mankind the tendency of the disease is to the 
formation of abscesses and suppurations; in bovines, to tumors 
and small nodules. 
In all the detailed reported cases occuring in man, there have 
been found, in the pus of the abscesses, immense quantities of 
small nodules, the majority being the size of a pin’s head, sul¬ 
phur-yellow in tint, and generally soft and tallowy in consistence. 
These are agglomerations of the Actinomyces. 
The Actinomyces. 
The botanical character of the Actinomyces docs not seem to 
be yet clearly established. ITarz, who first studied its morpho¬ 
logy and biology, was inclined to consider it as belonging to the 
class of moulds (such as the Pcnicillium glaucmn ), but Karsten 
thought it should be included among the Coniomycetes, as the 
“rust” and “smut” of cereals and grasses, and therefore belong¬ 
ing to the Ustilagince. So long ago as 1870, Professor Hahn, of 
the Munich Veterinary School, had discovered in a case of 
“Wooden Tongue” ( Ilolzunge ) characteristic organized bodies, 
which looked like a kind of brush-shaped mould. When Bollin¬ 
ger drew attention to the disease in 1877, and to the presence of 
these fungi, Harz made a special investigation of them, and from 
their eccentric radiating structure gave them the name of Acti¬ 
nomyces. As has been already shown, the fungus is contained in 
nodules which are often soft or puriform, and forms a pale-yel¬ 
low, brownish, or greenish-yellow, globular tuft, which, under a 
low microscopical power, offers a radiating arrangement of its 
substance, from the centre towards the periphery, reminding one 
somewhat of the crystals of certain fat acids. The larger of the 
tufts, which generally are composed of two or more mulberry¬ 
shaped masses, often appear to the naked eye as very small, 
millet-sized bodies. When properly prepared and highly magni¬ 
fied, if the nodules were embedded in tissues, they are observed 
to be composed of a kind of fibrous capsule; within this a layer 
of cells, for the most part of a lymphoid character; nearer the 
