ACID-PROOF BACILLI IN NON-TUBERCULOUS SPUTUM.

Several observers have found in the sputum from cases with pulmonary lesions, bacilli which are acid-proof and which closely resemble the tubercle bacillus on superficial examination. A. P. Ohlmacher1has reported finding an acid-resisting bacillus, which was at first mistaken for the tubercle bacillus, in the sputum from a case exhibiting certain clinical evidences of phthisis. He is of the opinion that the organism was identical with those described by Fraenkel, Pappenheim and Rabinowitsch in association with pulmonary gangrene. Lichtenstein2has also recently presented before the Berlin Society of Internal Medicine, a case in the sputum of which acid-proof bacilli were found. They were first mistaken for tubercle bacilli. The patient had had hemoptysis. Herr3has shown that acid-proof bacilli are widely distributed, not only upon grass and in cows' dung, but also in the dust from hay and in the soil of fields. In view of