Thrush. 



195 



4. Thrush. Stomatitis oidica. 



{Soorkranhlieit, Scliwaeuimchcn [GornianJ ; MiKjuct [French].) 



The term thrush designates patches formed on the mucous 

 membrane of the mouth and pharynx by the mycelium of oidium 

 albicans or monilia Candida. 



Historical. The disease has heretofore only been found positively 

 in fowls, especially in pigeons (Eberth, Martin). Its occurrence in 

 other animals is at present doubtful. (Gravitz has produced it experi- 

 mentally in a dog.) Ziirn described under the same name a disease 

 of foals and calves, but he has not demonstrated the typical fungus and 

 his description of spots and vesicles suggests that he was dealing with a 

 more severe form of stomatitis vesiculosa or stomatitis aphthosa. 

 Hajnal observed a contagious disease in young cattle which 

 he believed to l)e thrush, but he did not demonstrate the 

 fungus (see page 193). The fungus of thrush was discovered 

 in 1840 by Berg and Gruby, and studied more minutely by 

 Gravitz, and particularly by Plant (1887). The latter author demon- 

 strated the identity of oidium albicans and monilia Candida and the 

 transmissibility of thrush in fowls. (It is also found in man, almost 

 exclusively in infants or young children. [Translator].) 



Etiology. Oidium albicans (saccharomyces albicans, mo- 

 nilia Candida) is probably only a stage in the development of 

 one of the liigher 



hyphomycetes ^ ^ m 



(Plant) with mnl- ^ 



tiple - branched 

 filaments wliicli 

 possess rounded 

 ends, while the 

 spores are oval, 

 elongated and 

 sharply circum- 

 scribed" (Fig. 31). 

 On solid media 

 the colonies con- 

 sist of roundish 

 cells only, Avliile in 

 fluid media tliey 

 become elongated 

 into extensive fila- 

 ments. The or- 

 ganism grows well 

 on decaying wood, 

 on fresh cowdung and in curdled, but not in fresh, milk (Plant). 

 It invades particularly the mouth of debihtated and young 

 animals, and the sojourn in damp, dark, poorly ventilated places 

 favors the appearance of the infection. 



Fig. 31. Oidium ulhicans. From the mycotically de- 

 generated eye of an inoculated rabbit; hyphte, spores 

 and a number of leucocytes in groups. (From Plaut.) 



