44 



THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE 



The grayish-white patches occurring in the mouths of infants, known as 

 thrush, contain beside epithelia the following: Very delicate granules in 

 active, dancing motion microeocci ; short, single or double oscillating rods 

 bactaria ; delicate threads, straight or variously curved, smooth or granu- 

 lar, and in the latter case occurring in 

 chains, mostly without movement 

 leptothrix; and finally oidia. After 

 being kept for forty -eight hours in a 

 moist chamber, the mass removed from 

 the mouth shows a number of delicate 

 mycelia, the hyphee of which have small 

 sporangia. This vegetation is perfectly 

 identical with that of mildew. The oidia 

 correspond in their size to those of wine ; 

 many contain large vacuoles, in all de- 

 tails like those obtained from beer and 

 wine, only the color of the shell and the 

 granules is more gray and very slightly 

 yellowish. In preparations kept for 

 forty-eight hours in a moist chamber, 

 many oidia are united in chains, and 

 many show prolongations, .the extreme 

 ends of which are always compact and 

 structureless.* (See Fig. 13.) 

 Finally, I have seen in the oidia of acid urine, kept quiet for several days, 

 a structure perfectly identical with that of the mentioned various oidia. 



From the description of different forms of the mildew, it is clear that its 

 intimate structure is perfectly analogous to that of animal protoplasm, as it 

 was first described by C. Heitzmann. This investigator, from his observations 

 of the phenomena of motion and growth of animal protoplasm, has arrived 

 at the conclusion that there are two kinds of constituent substances in it, 

 viz., first, a gray or yellowish substance, which forms the limiting layer or 

 shell of the protoplasmic body, the granules, the central nucleus, and all the 

 connecting threads the living matter ; and, secondly, a liquid not possessed 

 of life, which fills the vacuoles and the meshes between the net-work of the 

 living matter the protoplasmic liquid. 



Only the living matter becomes easily and distinctly violet when the prep- 

 aration is stained with a solution of chloride of gold. 



The net-like structure is plainly marked in the low vegetable organisms 



FIG. 13. OIDIUM OF THRUSH FROM 

 A CHILD'S MOUTH, AFTER BEING 

 KEPT FOR FORTY-EIGHT HOURS 

 IN THE MOIST CHAMBER. 



a, oidia with vacuoles, with formation of 

 granules in the latter ; within the vacuole 

 single granules, with thread-like connec- 

 tions to the wall; b, oidium, with net-like 

 arrangement of the living matter ; c, chain 

 of oidia in budding ; the bud is compact, 

 homogeneous ; behind this are links with 

 successively larger vacuoles. Magnified 

 1200 diameters. 



* The fungus of the thrush recently has been studied also by Paul Grawitz (" Zur Bo- 

 tanik des Soors und der Dermatomykosen," J). Zeitsclir. f. prakt. Medicin, 1877). He made 

 experiments of raising, in transpareiit, nourishing fluids, and found in fluids rich with sugar, 

 after twenty -four hours, instead of single round or oblong conidia, clusters of oidia in budding 

 process. The more sugar was present in the nourishing fluid, the denser and less trans- 

 parent were the colonies of the oidia, while in fluids containing less sugar the dumb-bell 

 shapes of the oidia were prevalent. In the latter fluid there occurred chains of oidia, on the 

 uniting bridges of which numerous grape-like buds were visible. In fluids with a small quan- 

 tity of sugar and salt, pediculated buds grew in several directions from the periphery of 

 oblong oidia, and in one main direction links sprang from the mother body, lastly forming a 

 chain-like thread. The oidia of the thrush, as raised in a fluid rich with sugar, produced, if 

 transported into a dilute fluid, thin mycelia of the same shape in which we see them in fresh 

 thrush. Grawitz holds that the fungus of the thrush is in no relation to the oidium of milk, 

 but rather identical with the mycoderma vini, first described by Cienkowski. 



