IDENTITY OF AMERICAN AND FRENCH SPOROTRICHOSIS 127 



It is pointed out that sporotricha, French, American and 

 other strains, are especially subject to undergo pleomorphic 

 changes, some of which are transient while others are fixed 

 and permanent. De Bcurmann and Gougerot themselves have 

 called especial attention to this and admit that some of the 

 pleomorphic alterations in the macroscopic growth of certain 

 strains render them identical with the strain of Sp. schenckii 

 as it exists today. Furthermore, Hektoen has stated that the 

 culture as sent to them had changed in the seven year interval 

 on artificial media especially in its ability to produce spores. 

 This change is not an uncommon one in both American and 

 French strains and no doubt was associated with other pleo- 

 morphic changes. Yet de Beurmann and Gougerot and also 

 Matruchot used this loss of ability on artificial media to form 

 spores as a differentiating characteristic from their own Sporo- 

 trichum bcurmanni though they observed this same change in 

 strains of the latter. There can be no doubt that pleomor- 

 phic changes took place in Sporotrichum schenckii; and this 

 is borne out also by the photographs in both Schenck's and 

 Hektoen 's papers which clearly show that at first both strains 

 produced spores in large numbers. 



Changes in pigmentation are common in all strains of sporo- 

 tricha ; poorly or non-pigmented strains may arise from deeply 

 pigmented strains and remain fixed. One would scarcely 

 classify such an organism as sporotrichum on the basis of such 

 a fluctuating character as pigmentation, though this property 

 is mentioned by them as an important differentiating one. 



The statements of de Beurmann, Gougerot and Matruchot 

 that the Sporotrichum schenckii (original) does not form 

 chlamydospores must be considered erroneous. Under suitable 

 conditions these structures have been observed by the writer, 

 and these results were confirmed by Meyer, not only in the 

 original Schenck-Hektoen strain but in many other American 

 strains from both man and horses. The attempt to differen- 

 tiate Sporotrichum schenckii and Sporotrichum beurmanni on 

 this basis must therefore be given up. 



The fermentation of sugar is quite inconstant. It is diifi- 

 cult to understand why de Beurmann and Gougerot would use 



