THRUSH-FUNGUS 243 



day, and liquefaction gradually sets in, a white mass lying at 

 the bottom. A white wrinkled coating develops on potatoes 

 and serum, and the latter is speedily liquefied. All cul- 

 tures generate a gas with a most offensive feculent odour. 

 According to Prazmowski, the spirillum develops terminal 

 spores. Its growth causes curdling in milk, and a very 

 rapid decomposition of albuminoid bodies and of cellulose. 



The fungus of thrush (Soorpilz) . — The patches known as 

 thrush, which occur in the mouths of infants at the breast 

 and of persons greatly reduced by disease, are white in the 

 uncontaminated state, resembling curdled milk, but when 

 they have become impure display various colours. They 

 consist of fibres, conidia-spores, bacteria, epithelial cells, 



Filaments 

 Fifi. 9U. — Fungus of Thrush {Monilia Candida). 



and white blood-corpuscles. The thrush-fungus was for- 

 merly assigned to the group O'ldiuin, and described as 

 O'klium albicans ; but according to Eees, Grawitz and 

 Kehrer it belongs to the yeast fungi, and must therefore be 

 spoken of as Mycoderma albicans. Plant believes it to be 

 identical with a yeast very widely distributed in nature, the 

 Monilia Candida (fig. 90). 



According to Grawitz snow-white colonies develop on 

 the gelatine plate, but do not liquefy the medium. In thrust- 

 cultures white islets form, from which processes radiate out 

 on all sides, so that the culture has the appearance of a fine 

 brush, while filamentous mycelium develops in the deeper 

 part. The fungus grows on potato in a thick white coating, 



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