242 



SPECIFIC MICRO-ORGANISMS 



near the lower end and the oval conidia and jointed threads of 

 the parasite may be demonstrated by macerating this broken 

 end. The disease is very contagious, chronic and resistant to 



treatment, but proceeds without inflam- 

 mation or subjective symptoms, the 

 conspicuous sign being loss of the hair. 

 Cultures grow slowly and are snow 

 white. Animal inoculation is rarely 

 successful. 



Microsporon Furfur. This mold is 

 found in the superficial layer of the skin 

 in pityriasis versicolor, as short thick 

 hyphae 3 to ^ wide by 7 to 13," long, 

 together with abundant doubly con- 

 toured single conidia. Pityriasis versi- 

 color occurs most frequently on the 

 skin of the chest and is one of the com- 

 monest affections of the skin. 



Tricophyton Acuminatum. The 

 mold invades the hair shaft and causes 

 it to break off close to the surface of 

 the skin. In such a hair long chains 

 of oval cells of the parasite may be seen. 

 The parasite also attacks the skin and 

 produces ringworm. Several other spe- 

 FIG. gg.Sporotrichum cie s of tricophyton are distinguished. 



schencki. Cultures on the Tnese para sites are concerned in the 

 glucose-pepton agar of Sabour- f 



aud. (After Gougerot.) causation of barber's itch, eczema mar- 



ginatum, tinea cruris, and other skin 

 affections of this type. 



Sporotrichum Schencki. Schenck, at Baltimore in 1898, de- 

 scribed this parasitic mold which he found in the lesions of a 

 peculiar disease, beginning as a localized ulcer, with later involve- 

 ment of the neighboring lymph glands, in which cold abscesses 

 formed and opened to the exterior. A second similar case was 



