232 PNEUMOMYCOSIS 



ous dark red nodules appeared in the surrounding normal 

 tissue. In each lung there were from fifty to sixty of these 

 nodules, from 5 to 12 mm. in diameter. Most of them were 

 dark red and closely resembled partially organized blood clots. 

 However, on crushing a portion in glycerin between two 

 slides and examining under the microscope, thej' were found 

 to be made up almost entirely of a felted network of mycelial 

 threads. Between these large nodules there were numberless 

 smaller areas of much the same color, i to 2 mm. in diameter, 

 not perceptible to the touch as nodules but which were of the 

 same character and were no doubt foci of recent origin. These 

 were seen especially well in portions of the lung which were 

 preserved by Pick's method, the slight bleeching of the tissue 

 bringing them into relief. On opening some of the inter- 

 lobular emphysematous spaces, small, whitish, mould}- look- 

 ing patches were noticed which bordered the cavity. Scrapings 

 of these patches were made up entirely' of perfect fruit hyphae, 

 with myriads of spores. The diagnosis of a mould mj-cosis 

 was in this way made at once and confirmed by cultures and 

 examination of sections. Cultures were made on glycerinated 

 potato, bouillon and plain agar, by opening a nodule with 

 sterile instruments and tearing out a small portion of the 

 center, which was transferred to the culture tubes and placed 

 in an incubator at 39° C. x\bundant growth was obtained on 

 the potato by the end of thirtj'-six hours, white at first but 

 soon changing to a j-ellowish and later to a dark green. The 

 growth in the bouillon and agar was slow. Plates and flasks 

 of bread paste were made, and these with potato were employed 

 for all subsequent cultures. The formation of the fruit hyphae 

 was studied and the spores measured a number of times, being 

 from 2.5 to 2- 5/1 i" diameter. By these means the culture 

 was identified as the aspergillus fumigatus. The experiments 

 on other animals were limited to the inoculation of one rabbit, 

 into the aural vein of which one-half cubic centimeter of a 

 suspension of the spores was injected. The animal died in 

 forty-four hours and from the liver and kidneys cultures were 

 recovered. All of the organs were examined in sections, but 

 the mycelium was detected in two only. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



