346 



CLINICAL BACTERIOLOGY. 



More frequently, however, transmission takes place from 

 one human being to another. Of all the dermatomycoses, 

 herpes tonsurans is the most contagious. The predisposi- 

 tion of the skin for diseases due to the triehophyton is in 

 general greater than that for favus. Infection is facilitated by 

 all of the conditions favoring the vegetation of molds, such 

 as a moist season of the year, living in damp cellars, and 

 the like. The variability in the clinical picture of the dis- 

 eases due to the triehophyton depends in the first place 



Fig. 79. Microsporon furfur, fungus of pityriasis versicolor; X 700 (Kaposi). 



upon the varying reactivity of the skin and the varied local- 

 izations of the fungus, and in the second place also upon 

 the simultaneous activity of various bacterial excitants of 

 inflammation. The common cause of all varieties of tricho- 

 phytosis has, however, been determined experimentally 

 with certainty. In every instance the triehophyton was 

 cultivated, and with a pure culture thereof all the varied 

 forms of the disease were reproduced. 



Cultural Properties of the Triehophyton. Also in culture 



