632 PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS 



in almost all respects corresponded to Gilchrist's cultures. Animal 

 inoculation in rabbits and guinea-pigs proved positive in this case and 

 the organism seemed to show selective action for the lungs and spleen. 

 In the lungs of the animals, especially, lesions were found with surpris- 

 ing regularity even when the inoculation was made intraperitoneally. 



Cases of blastomycotic infection in man have been reported in large 

 numbers and appear to be less rare than they were formerly believed to 

 be. The clinical course of the disease is by no means uniform. A well- 

 defined clinical picture seems to characterize the cases of blastomycotic 

 dermatitis first described by Gilchrist. The eruption is very chronic 

 and begins usually as a small pimple or papule with moderate induration 

 of the skin. Scabs and pustules then form, which discharge yellowish- 

 white pus. As the lesion slowly spreads, the older areas show a tendency 

 to spontaneous healing. In Gilchrist's ' case, it took four years for the 

 lesion to spread two inches. When not purely cutaneous, blastomycotic 

 infection takes the form of chronic abscess formation occurring in various 

 parts of the body. In the latter, metastatic lesions in the lungs have 

 been occasionally observed, and in one case cited by Ophiils,^ the lung 

 seemed to have been the primary focus. 



The fact that blastomycetes have frequently been found in tumor 

 tissue has led several Italian observers ' to assume an etiological 

 relationship between these microorganisms and malignant growths. 

 Absolutely no satisfactory evidence in favor of such a belief has 

 been advanced, however, and the yeasts in these conditions must be 

 regarded as purely fortuitous findings. 



In animals, diseases caused by members of the yeast family have 

 been reported by various observers. The most important communica- 

 tion of this kind is by Tokishige,^ who found these microorganisms in a 

 nodular skin disease occurring among horses in Japan. Sanfelice' 

 has isolated similar microorganisms from the lymph glands of a horse 

 which was apparently suffering from a primary carcinoma of the liver. 

 The same author has described a member of this group which he obtained 

 from a cheesy consolidation occurring in the lung of a hog. 



Demonstration of the organisms offers little difficulty either in fresh 

 preparations of the pus under a cover-slip, or in smears stained with 



1 Bixford and Gilchrist, Johns Hopkins Hosp. Rep., i, 1896. 



2 Ophiils, loc. cit. 



^Sanfelice, Cent. f. Bakt., I, xxxi, 1902. 

 ' Tokishige, Cent. f. Bakt., I, xix, 1896. 

 6 Sanfelice, Cent. f. Bakt. I, xviii, 1895, and Zeitschr. f. Hyg., xxi, 1895. 



