logically. Morton, Lecce, Oskay and Coy (Jour. Bact., 68, 1954, 697) failed to demon- strate anything but single spherical bodies in electron micrographs of two other strains of pleuropneumonia-like organisms also ob- tained from van Roekel. Further compara- tive studies are needed before the relation- ships of the fowl pleuropneumonia-like organisms isolated from different sources and in various laboratories can be deter- mined. Edward, in preliminary investiga- tions, found more than one species repre- sented in strains isolated from fowls; at least three species would appear to be repre- sented among strains isolated from the continent of America (Edward, personal communication, 1955). Strains described by Tahey and Crawley (Canad. Jour. Comp. Med., 18, 1954, 67) and by Gianforte, Fung- herr and Jacobs (Poult. Sci., 34, 1955, 662) differed from Mycoplasma gallinarum Freundt by fermenting glucose and other sugars. Source: Isolated from the upper respira- tory tract of a fowl. Habitat: Found in the normal and dis- eased upper respiratory tract of fowls. Other strains of pleuropneumonia-like or- ganisms from fowls that may or may not belong to this species have been shown to be etiologically implicated in a chronic respira- tory disease of chickens and of turkey sinusitis. 12. Mycoplasma hominis (Freundt, 1953) Edward, 1955. (Human types 1 and 2, Nicol and Edward, Brit. Jour. Vener. Dis., 29, 1953, 146 and 147; also see Edward, Jour. Gen Microbiol., 10, 1954, 54 and 55; Micro- myces hominis, group I, Freundt, Acta Path. et Microbiol. Scand., 32, 1953, 471; also see Atti del VI Congresso Internazionale di Microbiologia, Roma, 1, 1953, 138; and Acta Path, et Microbiol. Scand., 34, 1954, 143; Edward, in Freundt, Internat. Bull, of Bact. Nomen. and Taxon., 5, 1955, 73; see Edward, Internat. Bull, of Bact. Nomen. andTaxon., 5, 1955, 90.) ho'mi.nis. L. noun homo man; L. gen. noun hominis of man. Unstable and sparsely branched mycelioid structure with very short, almost bacillary filaments which usually measure 2 to 5 microns in length (Freundt, op. cit., 1954, 127). Spherical elementary bodies have been demonstrated in electron micrographs by Morton, Lecce, Oskay and Coy (Jour. Bact., 68, 1954, 697). Slender, branching filaments and strings of minute cocci have been re- ported in a non-classified strain of human origin by Beveridge (Med. Jour, of Aus- tralia, 2, 1943, 479). Gram-negative. Horse-serum agar: Neither film nor spots are produced. Horse-blood agar: Very slight hemolysis, if any. Rabbit-serum agar : Good growth. Semi-solid media: Usually granular growth throughout the medium. Broth: Very faint generalized opacity, if any; small sediment. Carbohydrates not attacked. Reduction of methylene blue is slow and variable. Tetrazolium salts are reduced under anaerobic conditions. Aerobic, facultatively anaerobic. Serologically there are two distinct types (Nicol and Edward, op. cit., 1953, 145). Pathogenicity: Type 1 is not pathogenic for mice. Local abscesses are produced in mice on subcutaneous inoculation of type 2 strains. Completely resistant to sulfathiazol, peni- cillin and erythromycin. Moderate sensi- tivity is shown to streptomycin, and the susceptibility to dihydrostreptomycin is variable. Highly sensitive to aureomycin, chloramphenicol and terramycin. Comments: The occurrence of pleuro- pneumonia-like organisms in the human genital tract was first demonstrated by Dienes and Edsall in 1937 (Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med., 36, 1937, 740; also see Dienes, ibid., 44, 1940, 468). Six strains iso- lated by Dienes from 1939 to 1940 were later classified by Edward {op. cit., 1954, 54) as type 2 (now Mycoplasma hominis Edward, type 2). Source: Isolated from human male and female genital tract and anal canal; also recovered in pure cultures from the blood of a patient suffering from a puerperal septi- cemia and from the pus of a broncho-pleural fistula in another case (Stokes, Lancet, 1, 1955,276).
