CHAPTER XV 



STREPTOTHRIX INFECTIONS ACTINOMYCOSIS MYCETOMA 

 LEPTOTHRIX BUCCAUS CLADOTHRIX DICHOTOMA 

 MYCOSIS TONSILLARIS 



Streptothrix Infections (Streptothricosis) 



THE terms Streptotkrix, LepMhrix and Cladotkrix have been 

 loosely used to denote an organism forming long unsegmented 

 filaments ; in the two former the filaments show false branching, 

 in the latter the filaments show true, but not dichotomous, 

 branching. Some of them may be filament-forming Schizo- 

 mycetes, but the majority are probably true Fungi. 



A number of pathological conditions is caused by this class of 

 organism. These conditions are infective granulomata and they 

 may be included in a group entitled Mycetoma, of which the 

 following definition may be given l : " The term Mycetonw in- 

 cludes all growths and granulations producing enlargement, 

 deformity and destruction in any part of the body of man or 

 animals, brought about by the invasion of the affected area by 

 certain species of Fungi, belonging to different genera, which 

 give rise to variously shaped and coloured bodies known as 

 grains, which are either embedded in the granuloma or are found 

 in the discharge from the affected area. The grain is composed 

 of hyphae (p. 567), and sometimes of chlamydospores (p. 569) 

 embedded in a matrix, which on germination give rise to mycelial 

 filaments." (The " grains " must be distinguished from sclerotia. 



1 See Chalmers and Archibald and Chalmers and Christopherson, A an. 

 Trop. Med. and Parasitohgy, vol. x, No. 2, 1916, pp. 169 and 223 (BMiog.), 

 whose description is here largely adopted; Musgrave, Clegg and Polk, 

 Philippine Journ. of Science, vol. iii, 1908, p. 447 ; Foulerton, Lancet, 1910, 

 vol. i, pp. 551 et seq. ; Pinoy, Butt, de Flnst, Pasteur, vol. si, 1913, pp. 929, 

 977. 



