CHAPTER XL 

 SPOROTRICHOSIS 



SPOROTRICHOSIS is a somewhat rare disease of man, caused by 

 various members of a genus of fungi known as Sporotrichum (Link- 

 Saccardo). The first occurrence of human sporotrichosis seems to 

 have been reported by B . R. Schenck. * The isolated micro-organism 

 in this case was carefully studied and later was found to be identical 

 with a micro-organism isolated from another case of somewhat simi- 

 lar character studied by Hektoen and Perkins, f who described it as 

 Sporotrichum schenckii. In 1903 de Beurmann { and his associates 

 took up the subject in France, and Lutz and Splendore in Brazil, 

 and new cases were reported. On Aug. 8, 1908, the writer of an 

 editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association was 

 able to give references to 14 cases of the disease. In 1912 Ruediger|| 

 was able to collect 57 cases that had occurred in the United States. 

 In 1912 de Beurmann** reported that more than 200 cases had been 

 put on record since the beginning of his work in 1903. It will thus 

 be seen that the recognition of the cause of the disease and the im- 

 provement in diagnosis that followed it have made possible the 

 detection of many cases of a disease not recognized until 1900. 



According to de Beurmann who has shown great interest in the 

 affection and prosecuted its study with much industry, the known 

 organisms of the Sporotrichum group comprise the following: 



Sporotrichum schencki. 



Sporotrichum beurmanni. 



Sporotrichum beurmanni var. asteroides (Splendore). 



Sporotrichum beurmanni var. indicum (Castellani). 



Sporotrichum jeanselmei. 



Sporotrichum gougerati. 



Specific Organism. The Sporotrichum is characterized by a 

 filamentous spore-bearing mycelium. The filaments are fine, meas- 

 uring about 2 M in diameter, partitioned, colorless, much branched 

 and tangled. The chief feature is the occurrence of the spores which 

 are situated along the length of the recumbent filaments either on 



* " Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital," Dec., 1898. 

 t "Journal of Experimental Medicine," 1900, 1901, v, 77. 

 j Ann. de Dermatologie et Syphilographie, 1906, 538. 

 "Centralbl. f. Bakt., etc.," 1907, XLV, Orig., 632. 

 |] "Jour, of Infectious Diseases," 1912, xi, 193. 

 ** "British Medical Journal," Aug. 10, 1912, n, 2900. 



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