992 THE HIGHER BACTERIA, MOLDS AND FUNGI 



OTHER YEAST-LIKE PARASITES 



Other diseases caused by members of the yeast family have been 

 reported by a number of observers. Tokishige 24 found a very minute 

 type in a skin disease, pseudo glanders, occurring among horses in 

 Japan. Brumpt states that similar cases have been found in many 

 countries and that the infection may attack man. 



According to Mesnil, 25 the Jiistoplasma capsulatus of Darling, 26 

 which he found in three cases of splenomegaly in Panama, is closely 

 related to the above parasite and should be classed as a cryptococcus. 



The fact that blastomycetes have frequently been found in tumor 

 tissue has led several Italian observers 27 to assume an etiological 

 relationship between these microorganisms and malignant growths. 

 Absolutely no satisfactory evidence in favor of such a belief has 

 been advanced, however, and the yeasts in these conditions must 

 be regarded as purely fortuitous findings. 



In considering the possible origin of blastomycetic infections in 

 animals and man, it is, of course, important that we should have 

 some knowledge as to the pathogenic properties of yeasts met with 

 and handled in daily life. 



Rabinowich 28 has investigated the pathogenic properties of fifty 

 different species of yeast and among them found only seven varieties 

 that had any pathogenicity for rabbits, mice and guinea-pigs. In 

 most of those successfully inoculated the disease produced in labora- 

 tory animals had but very little resemblance to blastomycetic infec- 

 tious conditions observed in man. 



SPOROTRICHOSIS 



Sporotrichosis is a chronic infection usually limited to the skin, 

 the subcutaneous tissues, and lymphatics, occasionally involving the 

 muscles, bones and joints and exceptionally the viscera. The lesions 

 resemble closely syphilitic gummata and in typical cases occur in 



24 Tokishige, Centralbl. f . Bakteriol., 1896, i, 19. 



25 Mesnil, Quoted by Brumpt, loc. cit. 



M Darling, S. T., J. Exper. Med., 1901, 11, 515. 



27 San Felice, Centralbl. f . Bakteriol., I, 1902, xxxi, Ztschr. f . Hyg., 1895, xxi, 

 1895, xviii. 



** Eabinowich, Ztschr. Hyg., 1895, xxi. 



