122 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN STUDIES 
above on artificial media the mycclial filaments may run in 
straight or curved bundles with little entangling. 
As to biological characters the fermentation reactions of 
these organisms are apparently not very uniform or definite. 
Gougerot says that Sporotrichum beurmanni ferments saccha- 
rose but not lactose, whereas Sporotrichum schenckiu ferments 
lactose, but not saccharose. He states, however, that he does 
not know whether these properties are fixed for all strains 
and for the pleomorphic forms. Greco noted that his strain 
from South America failed to ferment lactose, saccharose and 
mannite. This does not agree with the fermentation reactions 
for Sporotricham bewrmanni as given by de Beurmann and 
Gougerot but they nevertheless classify the South American 
strains as Sporotrichum beurmanm. At the same time they 
use this difference in the fermentation of lactose and saccha- 
rose to differentiate Sporotrichum beurmanni from Sporo- 
trichum schenckii. 
Meyer and Aird?’ have made a careful study of the fer- 
mentation of American strains and of Sporotrichum beur- 
manni. They were not able to confirm the finding of 
Blanchetiére and Gougerot that Sporotrichum schenckii fer- 
mented lactose. Furthermore, they found the fermentation 
of saccharose irregular. They state that ‘‘in considering 
these results purely from a differential diagnostic viewpoint 
it is quite evident that it cannot be used for this purpose and 
the fermentation of carbohydrates is just as little a criterion 
of the type of sporotrichum as is the absence of pleomorphism 
and the chlamydospore formation’’. Their conclusions are so 
definite and so relevant that I quote them: 
The differentiation of pathogenic sporotricha into two distinct 
species by means of the fermentation of carbohydrates, is impos- 
sible. The reactions are not fixed and are as inconstant as the 
many variations noted in the formation of chlamydospores and, 
frequently, in pleomorphism. There does exist however an ap- 
parent relation between the pigmentation of the sporotrichum 
strains and the ability of these strains to ferment saccharose. 
The alpha and beta types are the most active fermenters. 
7 Jour, of Inf. Dis., 16, p. 399, 1915. 
