A  new  human  mycosis. 
A  study  of  the  morphology  and  biology  of  “Oidium  brasiliense”,  n.  sp., 
the  etiological  agent  of  a  new  human  disease, 
by 
Dr.  OCTAVIO  DE  MAGALHÃES 
(With  plates  4  to  14). 
In  preliminary  notes,  published  in  the 
“Brazil  — Medico”  of  September  29  and  Octo¬ 
ber  22  1914,  we  mentioned  some  characteris¬ 
tics  of  the  agent  of  this  new  human  mycosis. 
In  later  numbers  of  the  same  journal 
we  enumerated  the  chief  differential  charac¬ 
ters  of  the  new  disease,  and  stated, 
as  a  res  alt  of  several  observations,  the 
curability  of  this  disease  by  iodides.  In 
order  to  fulfill  our  promise,  we  now  proceed 
to  give  more  details  about  the  fungus. 
While  director  of  the  laboratory  of  the 
hospital  of  Bello  Horizonte,  we  examined 
daily  several  sputa  by  various  processes. 
In  the  course  of  1912  we  isolated  from  the 
sputum  of  a  patient,  whose  observation 
we  only  obtained  much  later,  a  fungus,  the 
biological  characteristics  of  which  allowed  us 
to  consider  it  a  new  species  and  to  include 
it  into  the  family  of  the  Oidiaceae.  The  re¬ 
quest  was  labelled  “research  of  the  bacillus 
of  Koch”.  The  negative  bacterioscopic  result 
induced  the  chief  of  the  clinical  department 
to  make  a  new  request,  this  time  with  the 
observation  “that  it  was  a  typical  clinical 
case  of  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  in  full  se- 
cundary  evolution”. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that 
the  new  researches,  this  time  not  only  bac¬ 
terioscopic  but  also  microscopical  (homogeni¬ 
sation,  inoculations  etc.),  were  always  negative. 
On  the  other  hand,  new  cases  with  the  same 
clinical  symptomatology  and  similar  result  of 
microbiological  researches  appeared  after  our 
attention  had  been  roused.  Careful  and  long 
lasting  studies,  continued  for  more  or  less  3 
years,  showed  the  high  pathogenic  power  of 
the  isolated  fungus.  The  animals,  after  any 
form  of  inoculation,  all  died,  writhin  a  varying 
la  se  of  time,  with  the  same  lesions,  from 
which  we  succeeded  nearly  always  in  again 
isolating  the  parasite. 
Two  facts  called  our  special  attention, 
forming,  so  to  say,  the  starting  point  of  our 
studies. 
