1916] 
Emic—Yrast FUNGI 245 
moulds can establish themselves on the surface of sound 
mucus, develop, and extend their filaments gradually and give 
rise to a special disease. Weichselbaum (’78) took the view 
opposing Virchow, in that the mould Aspergillus may infect 
tissues that were not previously diseased. 
HISTORICAL 
The first report of a fungus occurring in the human body 
is that made in 1736 by Horn and Degener (cited by Virchow, 
96) who observed a mould growth in gangrenous places on 
a man’s foot. Heusinger in 1826 (cited by Virchow, '56), 
observed fungous elements in the fresh scales of a ring-worm 
lesion and considered this find as worthy the attention of 
botanists. This hint, however, remained unnoticed until the 
Italian, Bassi, in 1837 (cited by Plaut, ’03), discovered that one 
type of silkworm disease was caused by a fungous parasite. 
Thereupon Schonlein (cited by Plaut, '03) was stimulated to 
investigate the infectious sealp diseases of man, with the 
result that in 1839 he found a hyphomycete to be the cause 
of the disease known as favus. This is the first incident in 
which a hyphomycete was known to be the cause of a human 
disease. At about the same time Langenbeck and Berg dis- 
eovered the organism which is the cause of thrush. 
An interesting observation, but of a questionable nature, is 
that made by Olsen in 1886 (cited by Guéguen, '05) in sup- 
port of the pathogenicity of Sterigmatocystis nigra. Olsen 
reports that on removing the bandage from a large flesh 
wound of a man he found a black mould that seemed to have 
penetrated the epidermis. This fungus, upon examination 
under the microscope, presented all the appearances of S. 
mgra. The wound, after being washed with a sublimate so- 
lution, was redressed with an iodoform gauze and overlaid 
with sublimate and a layer of peat. Upon removing this 
bandage a week later, there was evidence of an extensive 
development of this same fungus. Brefeld confirmed Olsen’s 
determination, although the spores and mycelia, when trans- 
ferred to a culture solution, failed to germinate. 
