THRUSH 543 



On Sabouraud's media most of the fungi at the commence- 

 ment of their growth appear as white fluffy or felted button-like 

 colonies on the surface of the medium, and as growth proceeds 

 a great variety of differentiating characters emerge. Thus the 

 organism may tend to spread in a fairly thin layer over the 

 medium and sometimes may present the appearance of successive 

 concentric rings of growth ; on the other hand the colony may 

 be heaped up in the centre as a projecting knob, or there may 

 be a central depression round which the heaping up may occur. 

 Sometimes there are ridges or folds radiating from the centre 

 of the colony, often presenting a geometrical arrangement but 

 sometimes having an irregularly convoluted appearance. The 

 surface may have a general woolly appearance or may give the 

 impression of being covered with fine powder. Sometimes the 

 surface formation is moist and slimy-looking. These appear- 

 ances are exemplified in Figs. 164, 165, 168. When colour is 

 produced it develops with age. An important point is the occur- 

 rence of pleomorphism. Thus a sub-culture frequently presents 

 characters different from those of the parent growth, or on a 

 coloured colony colourless points may appear which may 

 maintain the non -pigmented character when sub-cultured. The 

 evidence at present is that these are cases of true pleomorphism 

 and are not due to contaminations. On media presenting large 

 surfaces the colonies assume a correspondingly large size and 

 growth usually goes on until the whole medium is exhausted. 



Striokler has prepared a vaccine for treating tinea of the scalp by dis- 

 integrating twenty-four-day cultures of tinea in a mortar with pure 

 sodium chloride crystals and dissolving the magma in water to form a 

 solution of normal saline strength ; to 500 c.c. are added 10 c.c. of 

 chloroform, and the vaccine is killed by heating for an hour at 60° C. 

 Five doses of from 0'5 to 2 c.c. are injected between the shoulders at six- 

 day intervals. 



Thrush (German, Spoor ; French, Muguet). 



This condition, which is most common in children, chiefly 

 affects the tongue and fauces, and may extend into the oesophagus. 

 It is characterised by white patches largely composed of fungoid 

 growth, which cause slight erythema and catarrh of the sub- 

 jacent epithelium. A similar condition may occur in the vagina, 

 and a few cases of generalised affection with abscesses or tubercle- 

 like lesions in the solid organs, e.g., the lungs, have been re- 

 corded. The organism closely resembles the Oospora (Oidium) 

 lactis (vide p. 535), very frequently found in milk, and has been 

 called Oidium albicans or Manilla Candida. It occurs in two chief 



