698 ASPERGILLUS PICTOR 



and especially in dogs, the toxin produces a disease characterized by tremors 

 and twitching of the muscles and by respiratory and circulatory disturbances 

 which is fatal in a few hours (these symptoms are comparable with those of 

 pellagra). 



Cecci and Besta treat cultures rich in spores with 90 per cent, alcohol or 

 ether for 1 2 days. After evaporating the solvent a greenish-yellow substance of 

 syrupy consistence is left from which all the toxin can be extracted with water. 



Bodin and Gautier have obtained a toxin, of unknown composition, possibly 

 identical with that of Cecci and Besta, by growing Aspergillus fumigatus at 

 30 C. in a solution of peptone containing a carbohydrate (glucose, saccharose, 

 maltose or dextrin). Under these conditions the culture becomes toxic about 

 the twelfth day. The toxin is very resistant to heat and is only destroyed 

 after heating at 120 C. for half an hour. When inoculated into rabbits, dogs, 

 guinea-pigs, cats, or mice it leads to tetanic and paralytic convulsions, and 

 if the dose inoculated be sufficient may cause death in a few hours. It should 

 be noted that while the dog is immune to an inoculation of spores it is highly 

 susceptible to the action of the toxin ; and on the other hand the pigeon, 

 while very susceptible to the inoculation of spores, is unaffected by six times 

 the dose of toxin fatal to a rabbit. 



5 Aspergillus pictor. 

 [Syn. Tricopliyton pictor.] 



Pinta (Fr. Carates) is the word used to describe certain chronic skin diseases, 

 very common in Central America, characterized in their early stages by a 

 varied pigmentation of the skin. Four varieties are recognized, the black, 

 the blue, the violet and the red. 



FIG. 333. Scale from the epidermis of a case of the violet variety of Pinta. 

 x 450. (After Montoya y Florez.) 



[JEtiologically the several forms of Pinta would appear to be due each to a different 

 species of fungus, the parasites differing from one another in the character of their 

 fructifications. In the red and blue varieties, for instance, the fructification is 

 similar to that of an Aspergillus (A. pictor Blanchard) in the black variety to that 

 of a Penicillum (provisy. P. pictor Neveu-Lemaire). In other cases it is of an 

 intermediate type (Brumpt).] 



In man the parasite forms long, dichotomously-branched mycelial fila- 

 ments between the epithelial cells. Some of the branches end in a pear-shaped 



