BLASTOMYCOSIS OF THE SKIN IN THE PHILIPPINE 

 ISLANDS. 1 



James M. Phalen and Henry J. Nichols/ 



I. Introduction". 

 II. Prevalence. 



III. Different Forms. 



IV. Organisms and Cultures. 



V. Other Kinds of Blastomycosis. 



i. introduction. 



Our instructions from the Surgeon-General of the Army state that 

 "parasitic diseases of the skin deserve further study and attempts should 

 be made to isolate and cultivate the fungi causing them." Blastomy- 

 cosis we have found to be a particularly suitable subject for such a study 

 because of its prevalence and lack of recognition. Blastomycotic infec- 

 tion of the skin was first described in 1S94 by Gilchrist and generalized 

 blastomycosis by Busse in the same year. Since then a considerable 

 literature has been produced, in large part by American authors, as is 

 shown by reviews by Hyde and Montgomery, Hektoen and others. The 

 term blastomycosis is a general one and is used here for convenience to 

 designate pathologic conditions produced by double contoured, budding- 

 bodies. The botanical relations of these forms to yeasts and fungi, their 

 relations to each other and to such bodies as those of coccidioidal granu- 

 loma have not been sufficiently worked out to permit of exact classification. 

 Accordingly, we shall simply call attention to the clinical peculiarities 

 of the disease as we have seen it, to the nature of the organisms and of 

 the cultures obtained and to the presence here of other forms of blasto- 

 mycosis. 



II, PREVALENCE. 



We believe that cutaneous blastomycosis is one of the common para- 

 sitic skin diseases among both natives and white men in the Philippine 

 Islands. The dispensary clinic of the University Hospital, in Manila, 

 is a rich field for observing these cases among natives. Through the 



1 Read by abstract at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Philippine Islands 

 Medical Association, Manila, P. I., February 27, 1908. 



• 3 Captain, Medical Corps, United States Army, and first lieutenant, Medical 

 Corps, United States Army, constituting the United States Army Board for the 

 Study of Tropical Diseases, as they occur in the Philippine Islands. 



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