CHAPTER XXXII 

 RHINOSCLEROMA 



BACILLUS RHINOSCLEROMATIS (VON FRISCH*) 



General Characteristics. A non-motile, non-flagellate, non-sporogenous, non- 

 chromogenic, non-aerogenic, aerobic and optionally anaerobic, capsulated ba- 

 cillus, pathogenic for man and identical with Bacillus pneumonia of Friedlander, 

 except that it stains by Gram's method. 



A peculiar disease of the nares, characterized by the formation 

 of circumscribed nodular tumors, and known as rhinosderoma, is 

 occasionally seen in Austria-Hungary, Italy, and some parts of 



Fig. 292. Rhinoscleroma (Courtesy of Mr. Owen Richards, Cairo, Egypt). 



Germany. A few cases have been observed in Egypt and a few 

 among the foreign-born residents of the United States. The nodular 

 masses are flattened, may be discrete, isolated, or coalescent, grow 

 with great slowness, and recur if excised. The disease commences 

 in the mucous membrane and the adjoining skin of the nose, and 

 spreads to the skin in the immediate neighborhood by a slow invasion, 

 involving the upper lip, jaw, hard palate, and sometimes even the 

 * "Wiener med. Wochenschrift," 1882, 32. 



