111 
Ross, (46) in commenting upon Wright’s discovery, mentions that a 
flagellated organism, Cercomonas hominis, is frequently found in super- 
ficial ulcers and in the intestines, and suggests that possibly these bodies 
of Wright may be forms of the same organism. 
There can be little doubt as to the nature of the parasites encountered 
in my sections. They are, I believe, forms of Blastomyces (torulw), 
though they are very different from the usual species of Blastomyces 
encountered in certain human skin affections. After a careful com- 
_ parison of these bodies with those which have been found in ulcerations of 
the skin occurring in horses in the Tropics suffering from blastomycetic 
infection, I believe that the parasites of the two diseases are probably 
identical, and, as in glanders we have a disease which is occasionally trans- 
mitted to man, so human beings may also sometimes acquire this equine 
blastomycosis. However, it must be admitted that, when the parasites 
encountered in horses are compared side by side with those met with in 
the human case, slight differences may be observed. The equine organ- 
isms undoubtedly can be more clearly recognized as blastomycetic forms. 
They are also a little larger, their average length being about 5 », and 
their capsules frequently show a double contour, which has never been 
observed in the human parasite. However, these seem minor differences, 
and the similarity between the two is sufficiently great to make one feel 
that, even if the organisms are not identical, they must represent closely 
related species. 
Cultures on agar were attempted from the lesion in my patient at the 
time the tissue was secured, but although large numbers of the parasites 
were inoculated, no apparent growth took place during several months. 
This is another point in favor of the identity of the two affections, since 
the parasites found in the horse are frequently very difficult or impossible 
to cultivate. Although the statement is often made in the literature that 
Oriental botl is communicable to the lower animals (Manson, Scheube, 
and Jeanselme), and that dogs, horses and rabbits have been inoculated 
with the discharges from the human lesions and successfully infected ; 
nevertheless, it seems that further confirmation of this work is necessary. 
I did not at the time have the opportunity of inoculating a horse with 
any of the material from my case; but a monkey was injected subcuta- 
neously with a portion of the fresh granulation tissue, shaken up in saline 
solution; though no pathological effect resulted. However, the monkey 
is also frequently immune against inoculation with the material from 
the form of equine tropical ulceration referred to. It is perhaps possible 
that had I not been familiar with the appearance of the torula encoun- 
tered in this affection of horses, I might have mistaken these forms in the 
human lesion for protozoon-like bodies; since so much has recently been 
written of the occurrence of such organisms in Oriental boil, and since 
several observers state that the organisms encountered possess a definite 
capsule or cuticle. 
