206 CASTELLANI. 



tubes be inoculated from a white agar colony, the fungus will not be white, but 

 deep red. The development of the color of the fungus is therefore dependent upon 

 the composition of the medium on which it is inoculated. In Sabouraud and 

 mannite, and best of all in glucose media, the fungus so far as I have observed 

 is red. At the present time I have the tenth generation and the fungus has the 

 same characteristics as in the first. 



Ranging drop cultures. — Hanging drop cultures in Sabouraud maltose or 

 ordinary broth present the characteristics of the other epidermophytons. Repro- 

 duction takes place by budding and branching of the mycelial tubes; clamy- 

 dospores are present. It is interesting to note the rarity of lateral conidia. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



1. Tinea cruris or dhobie itch is caused by several species of Epider- 

 mophyton. 



2. The Epidermophyton I have described above may be added to the 

 two already known, Epidermophyton cruris Castellani and E. perneti 

 Castellani. For this new species I propose the name E. rubrum. 



3. Epidermophyton rubrum is characterized principally by the deep 

 red pigmentation of its growth in glucose, Sabouraud, and mannite agars ; 

 whereas it is white in ordinary agar. The pigmentation is remarkably 

 persistent and continues to be quite characteristic at the time of writing 

 (February, 1910), although the fungus has already been transplanted 

 nineteen times in subculture. 



A NEW INTESTINAL SPIRILLUM. 



I have recently encountered two cases of a peculiar type of acute, 

 fatal enterocolitis showing intermediate symptoms between dysentery 

 and cholera. Some of the stools were serous and cholera-like; others 

 consisted practically of mucus only. There was no blood. Both cases 

 died within forty-eight hours. In one, the disease was said to have begun 

 after eating dried fish. The stools, collected in sterile Petri dishes, were 

 examined for Vibrio cholerw, with negative results. On the other hand, 

 85 per cent of the colonies which developed on bile-salt agar and ordinary 

 agar were of a peculiar spirillum ; the others resembled organisms of the 

 colon group. 



DESCKIPTIOjr OF THE SPIRILLUM. 



Morphology. — The spirillum varies greatly in length and in shape; the same 

 preparation from an agar or broth culture will show some individuals 20 to 40 fi 

 in length with 2 to 4 coils, and also short bacillary or comma-like forms. The 

 difference in shape is so great that at first I believed I had encountered an instance 

 of symbiosis between a bacillus and a spirillum, but even by plating and replating 

 I never succeeded in separating the two forms, and therefore I consider them to 

 be of one and the same organism. The spirillum is readily stained with the 

 usual aniline dyes. It is Gram negative. 



Cultural characteristics. — The cultural characteristics are given in the follow- 

 ing table. 



