Page 367 - My FlipBook

ACTINOMYCOSIS. " 339

and are employed to perform the operation. In this manner
thirty-four persons, 6| per cent, of the entire population, were
infected by a single woman, and as many more by other indi-
viduals.
The present state of our knowledge of the Inology of the
germs of these diseases unfortunately makes it impossible for us
to determine whether and to what extent the human mouth may
serve as a nursery for those which may enter it with the air,
and thereby bring about an infection without direct contact with
an infected body. The facts given above are, however, sufficient
to demand earnest consideration, and present another warning
to those who are inclined to underrate the importance of the
mouth as a factor in originating and spreading disease.

ACTINOMYCOSIS.

In conclusion, we may mention a parasitical disease occurring
frequently in cattle, pigs, etc., but more seldom in human beings.
This disease, actinomycosis, is caused by the ray-fungus, Actino-
mtjces, of Bollinger,^^ and has been for years the subject of nu-
merous investigations. Formerly the ray-fungus was thought to
belong to the mould-fungi, Hyphomycetes, but the more recent
investigations of Bostrom,-^ who tirst succeeded in cultivating
Actinomyces on artilicial media, have made it probable that the
ray-fungus belongs to the most highly developed bacteria, and
must be regarded as a species of Cladothrix (perhaps identical
with Streptothrix Forsteri). Actinomycosis may therefore be
properly considered under the bacteritic infections of the mouth.
The ray-fungus, or ray-bacterium, as it should now be called,
occurs in the form of spirally curved furcated threads, radiating
from a center and dilating into bulbs at the extremities (Fig. 122).
These dilations were formerly called gonoids, while Bostrom
pronounced them to be involution forms. It grows slowly on
gelatine, quicker on agar-agar and beef-blood serum. According
to Bostrom, the optimum of temperature lies between 33° and
37° C.
"On the lower jaw of cattle tumor-like neoplasms sometimes