THE CULTURAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE ACNE BACILLUS

Abstract
The acne bacillus is a gram-positive, diphtheroid organism found in comedones, in the contents of acne lesions and in seborrheic filaments. In 1893, the bacillus was first noticed by Unna1in smears from comedones, but he did not cultivate it. In the following year, Hodara,2working in Unna's laboratory, succeeded in obtaining slight growth of the organism on agar plates, but was unable to transfer it. In 1897, Sabouraud3isolated it on a special acid glycerin agar by planting the central portion of seborrheic filaments on the surface of slants. Contamination with staphylococci always occurred, but these organisms were disposed of by allowing the cultures to stand several weeks or by heating them for ten hours at 65 C. In 1899, Gilchrist4obtained the organism, often in pure culture, directly from acne nodules by planting the gelatinous contents on an acid glycerin agar. He demonstrated that

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: