PATHOGENIC PROPERTIES OF YEASTS 121 



have described the Cr. linguae-pilosae which causes a malady in man. 

 Achalme and Troissier found S. anguinae which caused an angina. 

 According to Le Dantec certain dysenteries may be caused by yeasts. 

 Quite a number of yeasts have been described in tumors. One of the 

 most characteristic of these is the yeast of Curtis, Saccharomyces 

 subcutaneous tumefaciens, which is a true yeast forming ascospores. 

 Blanchard, Schwartz and Binot have described a yeast which caused 

 a tumor. Vuillemin and Legrain have isolated S. granulatus which 

 had pathogenic properties. 



The frequency of pathogenic yeasts has lead certain authors to 

 attribute to these fungi a varied role in disease, especially for some 

 of those diseases for which bacteria have not been discovered. Thus 

 attempts have been made to explain rabies and cancer on the basis 

 of the presence of yeasts. The possible relation of yeasts to cancer 

 has held the attention of bacteriologists and a brief resume of the 

 subject will be presented although the subject has been abandoned 

 today and is of historical interest only. The presence of yeasts (Cur- 

 tis, Blanchard, Schwartz and Binot, Vuillemin l and Legrain) in many 

 tumors has suggested that possibly these organisms were the cause. 



This idea has been supported especially by Russel who observed, in 

 a large number of carcinomas, spherical bodies which he called yeasts. 

 The investigations of Corselliet, Frisco, Plimmer, and Bra seem, at first 

 thought, to confirm this opinion. These investigators isolated a yeast 

 from many tumors (sarcomas, epitheliomas and carcinomas). Plim- 

 mer especially found Cr. Plimmer i in more than one thousand carci- 

 nomas. On the other hand San Felice pretended to have provoked 

 the formation of true neoplasms by animal inoculation of a yeast 

 isolated from certain fruits, the Cr. neoformans. For a time this patho- 

 genic theory of yeasts for cancer held a very strong position among 

 clinicians and anatomo-pathologists. 



It is generally agreed that among all of the published observations, 

 there is not one which will stand close scrutiny and which is suffi- 

 ciently demonstrative. It is now known that the bodies which Russel 

 observed are only degenerate cytoplasm. On the other hand, Ron- 

 cali, Plimmer and Bra have run afoul in their animal inoculation ex- 

 periments, for the yeasts which were isolated never reproduced the 

 tumors. 



If certain investigators, among others Carselli and Fisco, San 

 Felice, have been able to produce true tumors by inoculation of 

 yeasts, it was never demonstrated that the tumors had any histolog- 



1 Vuillemin, P. Cancer et tumeurs vegetales, Bull, des seances de la Soc. 

 des Sc. de Nancy, 1900. Les Blastomycetes. Rev. ge"n. des Sciences, 1901, 

 No. 16. 



