4
so doing, and. it is not too much to ask that in all fever cases one or more films of the
blood should be prepared before quinine is administered. If, subsequently, the case
runs a simple straight forward. course, well and good the slide may be cleaned and.
Dept in readiness for the next ease. Should the case however not prove so simple it
will be relief to the practitioner to know that he has a record of the condition of the
blood from the beginning.
7. One film of camel's blood showing trypanosomes was submitted for report. It
.is still sub judice.
10. Before the systematic quarterly analysis of town water-supplies initiated. by
Major. Clemesha, I.M.S., was started, 137 samples of water were examined. The
results were probably of very small value.
12. Spirochœta.—The preparation of specimens for demonstrating the parasites
of syphilis and yaws requires special precautions. The extreme minuteness and
deli-cacy of the parasites combined with the intense staining necessary to show them up at
all, demand that as little extraneous matter as possible be used in making the film.
Very thin films should be prepared from clear serum got by vessication or scarification
from the unbroken margin of a sore or papule.
Mycetoma—Madura foot.— Some preliminary attempts were made to isolate the
'Parasites of this affection and two perfectly distinct growths were got in pure culture—
(a) From a case with yellow granules of the disease a streptothrix.
(b) From the black grained variety a hyphomycete.
Neither of these parasites tallies exactly with published descriptions. The
strep-tothrix perhaps most nearly resembles S. Eppingeri as described by Musgrove and
Clegg.* At first the acid vegetable infusions recommended by Vincent were used as
bases for the preparation of media for studying these parasites. Contrary to expecta-
tion however the streptothrix grew very badly on these. On Agar made with hay
infusion with one per cent. peptone and 2 per cent. glycerine it grew very slowly.
After nine days a moist colourless streak almost flush with the surface and very
d i f f i -
c u l t t o s e e w a s f o r m e d . T h i s w a s c o m p o s e d o f d e n s e l y m a t t e d f i b r i l s v e r y a d h e r e n t t o
the agar and extremely difficult to tease out. By careful staining and decolourising
curious spherical or oval lateral buds, which appeared to be relatively acid fast can be
demonstrated. These are of considerably greater diameter than the fibrils and appa-
rently grow out into the chains of arthrospores which form the white efflorescence seen
at a later stage.
The streptothrix grows much more readily on ordinary alkaline agar forming
slightly raised buff coloured colonies which are very adherent to the medium. In
twenty-four hours or less a white efflorescence appears which consist of long strings of
bacillus like arthrospores. Later on these break up into single individuals, the con-
taining sheaths disappear and there is very little evidence of a streptothrix left. The
.growth of the young colonies can be best studied from these arthorspores as it is quite
impossible to get a good preparation by teasing out a colony.. If a suspension of the
spores be made in broth and a trace of this transferred to a hanging drop of very dilute
broth in a moist chamber the progress of the growth can be studied from day to day.
At the end of twenty-four hours the young colony consists of few branching filaments
with no very obvious centre. In forty-eight hours a centre is more clearly defined and
a certain amount of radial arrangement of the fibrils may be made out. In 72
hours the centre is well defined and consists of a densely felted mass of fibrils with
numerous fibrils running out to and beyond the periphery and having a very definitely
radial arrangement. Growths several months old show no sign of pigmentation.
In broth the parasites develop in the form of small puff balls. These when they
attain to the surface often adhere to the sides of the flask and develop the usual white
efflorescence.
The streptothrix stains with the ordinary basic dyes. Portions can be shown to
relatively acid fast to per cent. sulphuric acid, but it is not possible to describe it
as acid fast. It takes gram. Pathogenicity has not yet been determined.
* The Philippine Journal of Science, Vol. VIII, No. 6, section B, December 1908.