340 PUBLIC HEALTH BACTERIOLOGY 



why filaments are not usually found in the pus or granulo- 

 mata. The optimum temperature therefore is about 

 20 C. (15 to 22 ). The organism is Gram-positive, but 

 not acid-fast. 



Outside the human body, the organism has been found 

 living on decaying vegetable matter. Sporotrichosis has 

 also been described as occurring in dogs, rats, and in the 

 horse. In the last it causes a lymphangitis with superficial 

 granulomata of a benign nature, but important from 

 having a resemblance to glanders, especially as it also 

 at times prevails as an epizootic. Human infection from 

 the horse has been reported in twelve instances in seven or 

 eight years in North Dakota, U.S.A., where sporotrichosis 

 in horses occurs moderately frequently. A case is also 

 reported in a female bitten on both thumbs while holding 

 a rat which had been inoculated with sporotrichosis. 

 Serum agglutination and complement fixation have been 

 found to occur in sporotrichosis, but are not specific, as 

 the serum of patients suffering from other mycotic 

 affections (thrush, actinomycosis) reacts to Sporotrichum 

 Beurmanni, at least in the dilutions tried. 



Oidium albicans (sometimes called Saccharomyces 

 albicans) is the cause of thrush (Gr. Soor ; Fr. Muguet), 

 a localized disease of the mouth and pharynx, but also 

 at times attacking the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, 

 caecum, and anus ; besides being occasionally found 

 developing on the vulva, in the vagina, on the pre- 

 puce, and the glans penis. On rare occasions it has 

 been found in the bladder, the kidney, the lungs, the brain, 

 and in the blood. The oidium is composed of cylindrical 

 filaments, made up of joints 50 to 60 micra long by 3 to 

 5 micra in diameter. These give off branches, which bear 

 spores by constriction at their free ends. Budding is 

 also noted when grown in media containing sugars, allying 

 it to the yeasts. Two varieties are described, one which 

 liquefies gelatin and produces spores ; another which does 

 not liquefy gelatin and yields small spores. It grows only 

 in acid media. Like the yeasts, it can ferment sugars, but 

 is not so powerful as they are. 



It is easily diagnosed microscopically. A fragment of 

 the white membranous growth from the tongue or mouth 



