Recent studies of the olive-tubercle organism / by Erwin F. Smith.

  • Erwin Frink Smith
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Recent studies of the olive-tubercle organism / by Erwin F. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    secondary tumors are not due to the migration of host cells, but are the result of migrations of the bacteria, which set up local irritations where the secondary tumor arises. The bacteria make their way from the point of inoculation by way of the vascular system. They are easily observed in some portion of the vascular system, usually a very small portion of it, at points an^’where between the primary and the secondarA' tubercle. In the cases I have studied they were confined to small canals in the inner wooil next the pith, these canals being due to the disorganization of a group of vessels. The bacteria were abundant and the walls of the canal were stained yellow and hrown. The giving way of the woody structure and the flooding out of the bacteria into softer tissues is apparently what determines the apjiearance of a secondary tubercle at any particular spot. By splitting the stem lengthwise in the jiroper ])lace one can trace the canal of infection leading from the ])rimary tumor to the secondary one as a small stained line at the inner border of the wood, ea.sily visible to the naked eye. Sometimes the bacteria are numerous enough in the canal to form a slight ooze on cross .section. THE INOCULATION OF OTHER PLANTS. This organism ap|)arently is not infectious to \erhtm oleander. Only six oleander ])lants were tried, but these very thoroughly, i. e., IS sets of punctures on as many young actively growing shoots, using agar streaks forty-eight hours old ami inoculating A’ery thor- oughly, a total of about lot) needle jiunctures lieing made. These j)hints were under observation for five months. No tumors devel- oped. Sixteen oliA’e shoots were held as checks on the.se oleanders and developed 16 groups of tubercles corresponding to the points of inoculation, and also subsequently metastatic tubercles, as above mentioned. At jn-esent, therefore, T am unable to explain the counterstatements of Clayton O. Smith. The oleander tubercle seems to me to be due to Bacterium tnmefaciens Smith and Townsend. Apparently the organism is not infectious to Chn/santhemian fruiescens, i. e., at the same time that the oleanders and olives above referred to Avere inoculated, actiA’ely growing shoots of 12 Avhite daisy plants were inoculatetl by needle puncture from the same set of cultures. About 120 needle pricks were made and the inoculation was done Avith great thoroughness, but no tumors developed (five months). Bactenum tumefaciens would have produced visible results on the same plants in five to seven days and large tumors in two months. * ” The above-mentioned sets of inoculations were made in 1907. Karher in the cour.se of experimentation numerous attemjits were made to inoculate the olive di.sease into ash trees of several sjiecies, 131-IV ’