252 THE BLASTOMYCETES 



It causes a slight fermentation of saccharose. It forms ethylic 

 alcohol and acetic acid. 



Pathogenesis. White mice and rats are susceptible, extensive 

 local vegetations being produced. Microscopically examined, the 

 tumours exhibit no definite structure, but appear to consist of an 

 extensive parasitic infiltration. 



HYDROPHOBIA. 



Memmo, of the Hygienic Institute, University of Rome, has recently 

 stated in a contribution regarding the etiology of hydrophobia, that in 

 some cases he found a blastomycete possessing pathogenic properties 

 which he considers the cause of the disease. The fungus was found in 

 the cerebro-spinal fluid, the substance of the brain aqueous humour, 

 stroma of the parotid gland, and in the saliva, but never in the heart's 

 blood or other organs. Liquid culture media were used, especially 

 bouillon containing tartaric acid, and glucose of weak acid reaction. 

 The cultures did not begin to develop for ten days. In material from 

 ten healthy dogs and twenty rabbits, no similar cultures were produced. 

 Culture fluids exposed to the air, and mixed with dust found in the 

 laboratory, yielded no growth of the above fungus. 



With cultures of three or four generations from four different out- 

 breaks of hydrophobia, the purity of some being tested by plate 

 cultures, rabbits, guinea-pigs, and dogs were inoculated, mostly sub- 

 cutaneously, but also by iiitraperitoneal and intradural methods. In 

 eleven to twenty days some of the guinea-pigs and rabbits were affected 

 with paralysis of the hind extremities, followed shortly by death. 



In thirty to sixty days the dogs began to emaciate, became rabid, 

 vomited, and finally paralysis of the extremities preceded death. The 

 brain substance of the infected animals was infectious for other animals. 

 The fungus has also been found in sections of the spinal cord of a boy 

 dead of hydrophobia, stained by Sanfelice's method. 



