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

  • Erwin Frink Smith
Date:
1908
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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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    inoculations. Kn\l wrote to Schiff for it, who said he did not have it any longer, but perhaps Professor Kornauth would still have it, as proved to be the case. AGGLUTINATION TEST. The writer repeated the agglutination test described by Schiff, using young bouillon cultures of the right organism and the juice of a fresh large knot mixed with barely sufficient water to enable one to filter it satisfactorily through a Chamberland bougie. The peptone was throvm out- of solution by this fluid, but the bacteria continued separate and motile; they were not in any way clumped by one or two hours exposure or even hy exposure over night, nor when one part of the bacterial fluid was put into as much as ten parts of the juice and examined in a hanging drop. Moreover, even if Schiff had had the right organism, twenty to forty hours is altogether too long to wait for an agglutination. SAPROPHYTIC BACTERIA IN TUBERCLES. I find it difficult to believe that Schifl’-Giorgini’s organism occurs in all natural olive knots or that there is any symbiotic relatiomship. As already stated, saprophytic bacteria frequently occur in olive tubercles, and Doctor Petri touches on the ])ossibility of .symbiosis, without, however, committing liimself to it. My original belief was that Schiff must have obtained his organism from the surface of an imperfectly sterilized potato culture or from the .surface of the olive tubercle, but from Doctor Petri’s observations we must now conclude that it occurs in the interior of some of the tuhercles. The yellow orsianisms called Ascobactenum luteian bv Doctor Petri mav occur in all old knots, since we may assume them to be common on the siirface of olive trees, just as certain nonpathogenic forms are common on the skin of animals, but they are not by any means always in young knots. In certain poured plates where I found yellow bacteria in conjunction with the right organism I had good reason to think the surface of the tubercle had been insufficiently sterilized (thirty seconds). Neither Schiff’s organism nor the yellow form isolated by Berlese is necessary for the production of the tubercle, as Doctor Petri has also shown. In Petri-dish poured plates made from olive tubercles collected in autumn and whiter, or in early sjiring before new growth has com- menced, probably also in late summer, one might expect to find various intruding bacteria, also fungi. I have found the bacteria very frequently, especially the yellow ones. Schiff’s organism I have not, so far, found in the tubercles. In two instances I have obtained only the nonpathogenic yellow organisms from olive tubercles, but these were at least O or S months old, and iierhaps older—too old 41373—Bill. 131, pt iv—08 2