THE PATHOGENIC FUNGI 989 



of aerial hypha. The cultures become brown with age. In broth 

 they grow as a fluffy mass which sinks to the bottom. Sugars are 

 not fermented. Gelatin is slowly liquefied and milk slowly pep- 

 tonized. 



Morphology. In culture the spherical bodies immediately throw 

 out filaments 2 to 8 microns in diameter which are branched and 

 septate. In older cultures they develop large chlamydospores which 

 resemble the forms seen in culture and also conidia which are usually 

 arranged in chains at the end of the hyphae. In anaerobic cultures 

 in Noguchi's ascitic agar, rabbit kidney medium, MacNeal and 

 Taylor observed the formation of endospores like those found in 

 the lesions. The organism is pathogenic for dogs, rabbits and 

 guinea-pigs. 



Cooke 20 has studied the immune reactions in a human case of 

 this disease and found precipitins which reacted up to a 1 :160 

 dilution of the serum against extracts of the cultures. The serum 

 did not react with extracts of cultures of blastomyces. He was 

 unable to obtain complement fixation or positive skin reactions 

 with his extracts. t 



THRUSH 



Thrush is a localized disease of the mouth, occurring most fre- 

 quently in children suffering from malnutrition, but also in cachectic 

 adults. It is characterized by the development of creamy patches 

 on an area of catarrhal inflammation, usually on the tongue. 



MONILIA ALBICANS 



(Oidium albicans, Robin; Saccharomyces albicans, Rees; Endomyces 

 albicans, Vuillemin) 



The microorganism which causes thrush was first described by 

 Langenbeck in 1839. It is found abundantly in the false membrane 

 covering the lesion where it appears as a mass of simple or branched 

 mycelial filaments made up of irregular units of about four by 

 twenty microns. Oval cells of somewhat larger diameter are also 

 found, attached to the ends of the filaments, or lying free and 

 throwing out buds. 



20 Cooke, J. V., Arch. Jjjt, MecL, 1915, xv, 479. 



