xiii, b, 4 Wade: Studies on Cryptoplasmic Infection 185 



phologic identity, also lost its ability to infect a fresh individual, 

 or to return to a saprophytic, differentiated form. This seems 

 entirely possible in view of the profound, sometimes essentially 

 (ultimately) fatal, modifications that may be undergone by such 

 organisms in adapting themselves to animal parasitism. 



The hypothesis on which the suggested interpretation is based 

 may seem fantastic. Nevertheless the observations described 

 and those yet to be reported seem to permit of but one other 

 possible explanation. This involves the recognition as pathogens 

 of organisms belonging to the peculiar borderline group that 

 includes the Myxomycetes or Mycetozoa, which are not recog- 

 nized as of any importance whatever in animal pathology. For 

 the present it will suffice to call attention to the possibility. The 

 hypothesis adopted, based on modification of true fungi, seems 

 at this time to be the more conservative and the more probable 

 view. However, the distinction is not fundamental, for some 

 of the lower fungi (such as the Chytridinese) and the Myxomy- 

 cetes are in some respects closely allied. 



Of whatever type the invading organism may finally prove to 

 be, the process of "cryptoplasmic" infection outlined is based 

 primarily on observations and should be correct. At all events, 

 there is presented a most baffling problem, one that is not easy to 

 approach. Because of its essential peculiarities it will be very 

 difficult definitely to establish it. On the other hand, since ne- 

 gative results are often inconclusive, it will be equally difficult 

 positively to disprove it. 



CONCLUSIONS 



There has been found in one district of the Philippine Islands a 

 type of lesion, invasive, and usually more prominently ulcerative, 

 of undetermined etiology. On clinical grounds it seems very 

 possibly mycotic. No parasite of any type, protozoal, bacterial, 

 or fungous, can be demonstrated in the lesion. Fragmentation 

 of the nuclei of polymorphonuclei into separate rounded masses 

 ("chromolysis") is sometimes interestingly prominent. 



In certain cultures on special media, of tissues excised from 

 the lesion, the nuclear bodies of leucocytes have undergone modifi- 

 cation to produce clear-cut, intensely staining "basic" forms. 

 From each of two cases, in one culture only, there has developed 

 a Cryptococcus of very low cultivability and of cultural require- 

 ments suggesting high parasiticity. This is thought not to be 

 a contaminator but, in the absence of any recognizable precursor, 

 possibly to be a development of the basic forms. 



