14 



Ihe similarity is suggestive. Honcamp and Zimmerman (28) fed 

 spores of a smut fungiis, Tilletia, to horse, cow, rabbit, chicken, 

 and pigeons, and found tliat tlie spores bad lost their vitality when 

 defecated. If the loss of vitality is due to the combined action of 

 temperature and gastric juice in the body, or to mere submergence 

 of the spores in the digestive fluids, as the authors tliink, is a 

 question not readily answered at present. 



6. Pathogenic Properties of Moulds isolated from 

 Human and Animal Faeces. 



Having discussed tlie moulds found in the alimentary canal 

 raerely as obligate sapropliytes, it now becomes necessary to consider 

 the pathogenic properties of these moulds. As is well known, many 

 species of moulds e. g. forms of Macor and Aspergillus, furnish in- 

 structive examples of the phenomenon of facultative parasitism. If 

 spores of these forms gain a foothold in the nasal cavity, in the 

 ear, or in the lungs of man and warm-blooded animals, they may 

 cause serious disturbances or even death. The disease, known to 

 physicians as mycosis, may also be induced by injection of spores 

 of these ^pathogenic moulds into the blood vessels of animals. The 

 spores are conveyed by the blood to all parts of the body and 

 germinate readily in the kidneys and in the liver causing charac- 

 teristic derangements of the tissues, which — if the quantity of the 

 spores injected is large enough — may lead to the death of the 

 animal within a few hours. The destructive properties of these 

 moulds are- commonly claimed to be due to mechanical irritation 

 of the organs attacked, although in recent times attention has also 

 been paid to the toxin-producing properties of these fungi. 



With these facts in mind, the presence in the alimentary canal 

 of such forms as Asper gillas fumigatus, A. flavns, A. nidulans, and 

 A. niger, all of which are known to cause mjxoses of various organs, 

 becomes a rather serious question, and the importance of it is not 

 lessened in the least, when the literature on this and related topics 

 is scrutinized. 



The presence of fungi in the digestive apparatus is in itself no 

 peculiarity. Other body cavities communicating with the outer 

 world have been found to lodge various fungi. The mouth cavity 

 supports a characteristic bacterial flora (Kuster 35) and species of 

 Mucor, Penicilliiim, Oidium, and Saccharomyces have been found in 



