326 MEDICAL MYCOLOGY 



CRYPTOCOCCUS 



Cryptococcus Kuetzing, Algarum Aquae Dulcis Germanicarum Decas III, 

 No. 28, 1833. 



Torula Turpin, Mem. Acad. Sci. [Paris] 8: 369-402, 1838 p.p., non Persoon, 

 1796. 



The type species is Cryptococcus mollis Kuetzing. The type of Tonila 

 Turpin non Persoon was Torula cerevisiae and probably included sporogenous 

 as well as asporogenous strains. 



Eecently Ciferri & Eedaelli (1929) have published a partial review of the literature 

 relating to the difficult group of organisms which may be roughly designated as imperfect 

 yeasts. It is unfortunate that such a paper should have been written without access to much 

 of the pertinent early literature of the group, some of which apparently was known to them 

 only from secondary sources, while some of the more important papers were entirely over- 

 looked. This is especially unfortunate in the case of Cryptococcus, since very many nomen- 

 clatorial changes would be necessitated if their statements were accepted without careful 

 examination. 



The genus Cryptococcus was first established by Kuetzing in his Algarmn Aquae Dulcis 

 Germanicarum Decas III. No. 28, 1833, with a repetition of the diagnosis and discussion of its 

 habitat in Linnaea 8: 365, 1833, in which he cites his earlier work of the same year. The 

 genus is characterized as follows: Globuli mucosi hyalini non colorati microscopici in stratum 

 indeterminatum. mucosii/m facile secedens sine ordine aggregati. 



Cr. mollis Ktz. ' ' An f euchten und schmutzigen Fenstern. ' ' 



The description is accompanied by a specimen dried to a small square of glass. The 

 fungus consists of hyaline thin-walled spheres. There is also present, obviously as a contam- 

 inant, a small amount of a slender mycelium with small, very slightly colored, thick-walled 

 spores, probably a saprophytic species of Ahsidia which agrees with the specimen of his 

 Leptomitus Plumula issued in Decas 1, No. 9. The exact habitat is not given but, judging 

 from his citing of this species found in conjunction with his Leptomitus Flu/mula, it seems 

 probable that it comes from dirty windows, always in shadow from the building opposite, in 

 the courtyard of an inn in Herbsleben, a hamlet of Gotha in Germany. Kuetzing, still 

 laboring under the misconception of the polymorphism of these groups, thought that his 

 Cryptococcus was close to the primordial slime of the philosophers and that various higher 

 forms might develop from it, for he mentions one case in a well-lighted window on which 

 Oscillatoria developed and gradually replaced the Cryptococcus colony. Since, in general, 

 the species of Oscillatoria require a considerable amount of organic nitrogen for their active 

 development, it seems quite likely that the habitat where he found his Cryptococcus (in water 

 of condensation on windows of farmers' living rooms and inn yards) might easily have been 

 contaminated by dirt from the stables. This supposition is also strengthened by the pres- 

 ence in the type collections, of tiny brown particles of dirt, which under the microscope ap- 

 pear to be bits of dung. Hence, it is quite possible that from the first this genus name, 

 Cryptococcus, has been associated with an imperfect yeast from the intestinal tract, if not 

 with some more active parasite of the domestic animals. 



Kuetzing next added a new species in his article in Erdmann's Jour. Prakt. Chem. 1: 

 475, 1834. This species, Cryptococcus infusionum, was described as causing a deposit in, and 

 discoloration of, rhubarb infusions. Methods for its control were elaborated. No pellicle is 

 mentioned and no evolution of gas. 



In 1843, Kuetzing treats the genus in his Phycologia generalis, pp. 147-149. Here he 

 definitely recognized C. fermentum previously discussed but not mentioned by name in 



