PINT A 143 



mon in Malay peninsula. Also found in some parts of the Philippines and in 

 China. Some authorities consider the fungus to be a Trichophyton. 

 Castellani claims that the cause is a fungus which develops between the stratum 

 corneum and the deeper layers of the epidermis, Endodermophyton concentricum. 

 It differs from the achorions in not invading hair follicles. (See page 141.) 



5. A. pictor. This is the cause of a skin affection of Central America (Pinta). 

 In the affection colored spots appear on the skin, chiefly on face, forearms, and 

 chest. The disease is attended with a mangy odor. Spots are of various 

 colors; if the superficial epithelium is affected we have a dark violet color. 

 Deeper involvement gives red spots. 



Other names for the disease are caraate and mal de los pintos. At first it was 

 thought that the different colors shown by the eruption were due to varying depths 

 of the proliferating fungi in the skin layers but it is now known that the explanation 

 is in a variety of species in the different types of pinta. 



The pure violet pinta is caused by Aspergillus pictor, while the grayish- violet one 

 is due to Penicillium montoyai. A species of Monilia causes the white variety and 

 different species of Montoyella a black and a red variety respectively. The genus 

 Montoyella is stated by Castellani to have both slender and thick mycelial threads, 

 from the thicker of which spring delicate hyphae terminating in pear-shaped conidia. 

 Material scraped from the lesions and mounted in liquor potassae shows the 

 fructification terminations characteristic of Aspergillus or Penicillium in the violet 

 or gray- violet varieties while the white, black and red ones only show mycelial threads 

 and scattered spores. These pinta species of fungi can be cultivated on Sabouraud's 

 medium. 



Montoya thinks that the pinta fungi lead a saprophytic existence in the waters of 

 mines or other places with a constant high temperature, and states that he has 

 obtained pure cultures from such sources. 



Sterigmatocystis. This genus has chains of conidia, similiar to those 

 of Penicillium, but these are borne on other short chains, which arise 

 from the clubbed aerial hyphae (conidiophores). These are called 

 secondary and primary sterigmata, respectively. 



S. nidulans. This fungus has been found in cases of otomycosis as well as in the 

 white granules of mycetoma. 



Hyphomycetes. In this order are grouped certain genera which 

 cannot properly be assigned to any of the other orders. They are also 

 designated Fungi Imperfecti, for the reason that the fruiting bodies 

 characteristic of the other orders have not been satisfactorily observed. 



Discomyces bo-vis This is the well-known ray fungus, the cause of actinomycosis. In 

 man it is at times found in chronic suppurative conditions attended with much 

 granulation tissue. Such pus may show small yellow-gray granules about the 

 size of a pin's head. When spread out between two slides the central portion 

 shows a network of mycelium with bulbous thread-like rays going to the periph- 

 ery. The "clubs" at the periphery are degenerate structures and do not stain 

 by Gram. The central mycelium is Gram-positive. This mould is essentially 

 an anaerobe and should be cultivated in a deep glucose agar stab. It may also 



