304 MANUAL OP POISONOUS PLANTS 



black, gas-producing in sugar medium, grows well in ordinary media but pre- 

 ferably in acid; grows best at high temperature. (An organism isolated by 

 Curtis produced white colonies with oval, or club-shaped cells, frequently pro- 

 ducing capsules.) Grows readily in nutrient media, does not form a pellicle 

 on the surface in liquid media. 



Descriptions of several so-called species of Saccharomyces causing Blasto- 

 mycosis will be added to the above. In their development, blastomycotic fungi 

 resemble true hyphal fungi rather than yeasts. It is convenient to discuss 

 them here until their true relationship has been determined. 



Distribution. Found in Europe and America. 



Pathogenic properties. It was first isolated from the left tibia of a woman 

 thirty-one years of age, the disease having first manifested itself by a purplish- 

 red spot and swelling. An operation was performed, but it failed to relieve 

 the trouble, new foci making their appearance after the operation and finally 

 becoming general, being accompanied with pus formation. The patient died in 

 13 months, the lungs, kidneys, and spleen having become involved. There was 

 no oedema, the organisms found in the lungs and kidneys being marked by 

 small, nodular swellings. 



Large amounts of culture, when inoculated into guinea pigs, dogs, and rab- 

 bits, produce the disease followed by death. In another case described by Curti^ 

 in 1895, the disease occurred in a young man. The organism isolated is path- 

 ogenic for rats, mice and dogs. 



Fig. 113. Blastomycosis of the skin show- 

 ing the elongated cells and budding forms. After 

 Hyde and Montgomery. 



Ziegler, in his General Pathology, summarizes our knowledge of the path- 

 ogenic properties of yeast as follows: 



As parasites no importance has been attached to them until very recently, but the in- 

 vestigations of Busse, Buschke, Sanfelice, Curtis, and others have established the fact thai 

 there are also species of Saccharomycetes of pathogenic importance. According to these 

 observations, the pathogenic yeasts can multiply in different tissues, in the skin, periosteum 

 lungs, and glandular organs, and can excite either purulent inflammations or proliferations 

 of granulation tissue, which run a course similar to that of an infection with actinomycosi'. 

 or tuberculosis. In inflammatory foci, the yeast cells are for the most part provided witli 

 a capsule. They may give rise to tumor-like swellings. Through degenerate changes, 

 crescentic forms may develop from the oval yeast-cells. 



In solutions containing sugar the blastomycetes form oval cells. Reproduction takes 

 place through budding and constriction; on any portion of the parent cell there may develop 

 an excrescence, which is constricted off after it reaches the size of the mother cell. Under 



