

6 HARRY WARREN ANDERSON 



3. To determine the proper botanic position of these yeast-like 

 organisms and to compare them with the pathogenic fungi of similar 

 structure. 



4. To investigate the mode of development and the life histories 

 of the fungi secured. 



5. To devise a practical scheme of separating species within the 

 group. 



6. To determine the fate of yeast-like organisms when ingested. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW 



A. brief review of some of the more recent fundamental articles on patho- 

 genic yeasts* is all that will be attempted at this point. The earlier works 

 have been thoroughly reviewed by Plaut ('03a), Busse ('03), Gedoelst ('02), 

 Gueguen ('04), and Guilliermond ('12), all of whom give excellent bibliogra- 

 phies. Emig ('16) also gives a fairly complete bibliography and reviews some 

 of the more recent publications. Those publications dealing with the taxonomic, 

 physiologic, cultural, and morphologic phases of the subject will be reviewed 

 under the discussion of these items. 



Recently Ashford ('15a, b, c) in studying the etiology of sprue, has announced 

 the constant presence of a yeast-like organism in the digestive tract, thus con- 

 firming and extending the investigations of Bahr ('14), Kohlbrugge ('01), 

 Le Dantec ('08), and Castellani ('14), all of whom had previously isolated 

 fungi of the Oidium albicans type from sprue patients. This disease is present 

 in the southern United States according to Wood ('15), and is of considerable 

 importance in our tropical island territories. It has been suggested by Wood 

 and others that pellagra, having many symptoms in common with sprue, may 

 be caused by a similar organism. 



A series of articles by Castellani ('11, '12, '13, '14), Castellani and Low ('13), 

 and Castellani and Chalmers ('13), on the presence of yeast-like organisms of 

 the Oidium albicans type in a number of tropical diseases has emphasized the 

 importance of a more intensive study of these fungi. Castellani has recorded 

 the presence of 33 species of Monilia as occurring in widely different types of 

 disease. He has also separated the common thrush organism, formerly called 

 Oidium albicans, into a number of new species (Castellani '16), on the basis 

 of certain cultural and biochemical reactions. 



Recently Simon ('17) has studied an infection of the lungs, of a tuberculous 

 nature, in which he found a yeast-like organism similar to Oidium albicans. 

 Birch-Hirchfeld (75) has recorded a case of the thrush organism involving the 

 lungs, and Castellani ('13) recorded 16 of his species as occurring in broncho- 

 oidiosis. Other investigators have also recorded cases where the thrush fungus 

 was present in the lungs. 



The work of Gilchrist and -Stokes ('98), Ricketts ('01), Stober ('14), Wade 

 and. Bel ('16), and others on blastomycosis in this country will be reviewed in 

 greater detail in another section. 



Casagrandi ('98) has made the most complete study of the yeast-like fungi 

 of the alimentary tract. He came to the conclusion that: "(1) I n the intes- 



* The term yeasts will be employed in the following pages when referring to the veast- 

 like organisms under consideration. This shorter term does not imply that the fungi referred 

 to are true yeasts in the narrower sense of the term.^ 



