544 PATHOGENIC FUNGI 



manifests considerable vitality under saprophytic conditions, as 

 might be expected from the widespread distribution in nature of 

 allied members of the group and even, it is said, of the Sporo- 

 trichon beurmanni. The organism in artificial cultures is patho- 

 genic when injected subcutaneously in mice, rats, dogs, etc., 

 granulomatous lesions identical with those of the natural disease 

 being produced. 



Sporotrichosis in man has probably often been confused with 

 the manifestations of syphilis, as the condition readily yields to 

 the administration of potassium iodide. In horses, certain cases 

 presenting the characters of epizootic lymphangitis have been 

 found to be associated with an organism indistinguishable from 

 the Sporotrichon beurmanni. 



BLASTOMYCOSIS. 



In pathological literature there are recorded a very large 

 number of usually isolated cases presenting the characters of 

 granulomata or of chronic suppurations, in connection with which 

 the presence of yeast-like bodies has been observed, and from 

 which cultures of these have been obtained. The relation of 

 the organism isolated to the known types of fungi is largely 

 undetermined. In the tissues the organisms usually appear as 

 single double-contoured cells which multiply by budding or by 

 a process resembling endogenous sporulation, while in artificial 

 cultures, although similar appearances may be seen, a tendency 

 to mycelium formation is frequently observed. The term 

 blastomyces, which may be taken as synonymous with yeast, 

 finds no place nor has it any specific significance in modern 

 descriptive fungology, for in vastly differing species yeast-like 

 elements occur representing stages in development. From their 

 tendency to produce mycelia, the organisms concerned in the 

 so-called blastomycosis probably approach most nearly to the 

 oidia (oospora), so that oidiomycosis might be a more scientific 

 denomination of the diseases in question. 



While organisms of this group have been isolated from many 

 conditions, for example rabies and malignant tumours, in which 

 there is no evidence that they play an etiological role, there is 

 no doubt that they can multiply and originate pathological 

 changes in the animal body. An example of this is seen in 

 Fig. 171, taken from the kidney of a rabbit which was inoculated 

 subcutaneously with an organism isolated from the sputum of a 

 human case of obscure granuloma of the lung, associated with a 

 suppurative condition in the kidney, and the presence of similar 



