PATHOGENIC YEASTS 463 



tumours produced by yeasts are probably granulomata and 

 not true malignant tumours. 



Curtis l obtained a yeast from an apparently myxo- 

 matous tumour in a young man. The organism was met 

 with in two forms free and encapsuled. The free form 

 appeared in young agar cultures as round or ovoid cells 

 measuring 3 to 6 /x in diameter, often showing budding. 

 The encapsuled form was met with in the original tumour 

 and in the tissues of inoculated animals, and occurred 

 as a large sphere 16 to 20 /u. in diameter, enclosing the 

 yeast cell, the capsule being hyaline and 4 to 6 M in thick- 

 ness. On agar at 37 C. the organism formed whitish, 

 opaque, creamy colonies in two to three days, becoming 

 a thick creamy growth at the end of a week, on gelatin 

 white colonies or growth in four to five days without 

 liquefaction, and in broth a flocculent deposit, the broth 

 remaining clear. It was aerobic, did not grow on serum, 

 and formed a small quantity of acetic acid and alcohol 

 when grown in beerwort and sugar solutions. It was not 

 pathogenic for guinea-pigs, but inoculated into rabbits, 

 rats, mice, and dogs it produced tumours and caused death. 

 The tumours to the naked eye appeared to be myxo- 

 sarcomata, and in them the yeasts were found. 



Busse also obtained a pathogenic yeast from a young 

 woman who suffered from a tumour of the tibia, and 

 ultimately died with diffused growths in the bones and 

 organs. The yeast-like cells were observed in the affected 

 parts, and were isolated by cultivation, and the cultures, 

 inoculated into mice and rabbits, produced death with 

 growths in the organs. As in Curtis's case, the cells in 

 the tissues appeared to be encapsuled. 



Gilchrist described a case of blastomycetic dermatitis. 

 Small miliary abscesses were present in the rete and 

 corium, in the pus of which the parasitic cells were 

 1 Ann. de Vlnst. Pasteur, x, 1896, p. 449 (Refs.). 



