THE HYPHOMYCETES 171 



showing yeast-like cells, the growth on potato being a 

 whitish, thick, raised patch. After an intravenous 

 injection rabbits die in about thirty-six hours, with their 

 viscera full of the mycelium. 



Gibbons says sometimes it causes pruritus and Bahr 

 (Medical Press, October 7, 1914) describes it or a similar 

 organism as occurring in the tongue lesions of sprue. 



Oidium carnis (see p. 209). 



Sporotrichon Beurmanni. 



This organism may attack practically any of the tissues 

 of man. The disease (Sporotrichosis) simulates tuber- 

 culosis and syphilis and produces pus. It can seldom be 

 found in smears but is readily cultivated. Gougerot 

 (Medical Press, October 7, 1914) recommends the pus 

 from closed lesions being inoculated on to glucose gelatin 

 and kept at room-temperature. He says that colonies 

 of sporotrichum make their appearance between the fourth 

 and the twelfth day ; white at first, they soon become brown 

 and then chocolate colour. He likens the colour and the 

 wrinkling to mountains on a relief map or the cerebral 

 convolutions. A brownish halo surrounds the colonies. 

 Gougerot says infection takes place through scratches 

 with thorns or with knives used for peeling potatoes, 

 for example, and the ingestion of uncooked vegetables. 

 Animals may convey infection. 



The organism produces filaments and spores, and is 

 thought to be a hyphomycete. 



Ringworm. 



American authorities include the forms of ringworm in 

 a class called the Kcratomyceles, owing to their power of 

 living on the keratinised products of skin, which they 

 break up and digest by means of keratolytic ferments. It 

 rarely affects sheep and pigs, and in cattle is usually 

 confined to the head and neck. In France it is frequent 

 among horses. Dogs and cats arc affected, and frequently 

 transmit the disease. In the human subject most forms 

 of ringworm disappear before the host reaches twenty 

 years of age. 



Two varieties at least of the disease are to be dis- 

 tinguished : 



