MADURELLA 



1105 



It is generally assumed that this and the Asian, together with 

 the American type, are one and the same disease, but this still 

 requires proof. 



In 1908, NicoUe and Pinoy described a maduromycosis which 

 they found in Southern Tunisia, near the Oasis of Tozeur, with hard 

 dark brown grains about the size of a pin's head, in which segmented 

 and ramified hyphae about 1-4 microns in diameter were seen, 

 as were rounded bodies arranged in chains and resembling the 

 mycelial spores of a trichophyton, the whole being embedded in a 

 brownish cement substance. Cultures were obtained at 35° C, and 

 the growths were identical on maltose agar, glycerine agar, potato, 

 and carrot, and all the media became pigmented black, due to a 

 tyrosinase produced by the fungus, while the colonies which devel- 

 oped in twenty-four hours at 37° C. were white. Microscopically 

 the growths showed the ' fa vie nails ' so commonly met with in 

 cultures of A. schoenleini. The authors looked upon the organism 

 as belonging to the genus O'dspora Wallroth, 1833, with which 

 Vuillemin considers Achorion schoenleini Lebert, 1845, should be 

 classified. Its name, therefore, became O'dspora tozeuri (NicoUe 

 and Pinoy, 1908). 



Inoculation experiments were unsuccessful in the rabbit, the 

 guinea-pig, and the monkey, but two successful infections were 

 obtained in pigeons. 



Brumpt, however, considers the fungus to be a Madurella, and 

 therefore its name becomes Madurella tozeuri (Nicolle and Pinoy, 

 1908). 



Brault (191.1 and 1912) cultivated the fungi Madurella my cetomi 

 and M. tozeuri. 



The former grew at 20° C. and 37° C. on broth, various agars, 

 potato, carrot, and some vegetal liquid media. 



In the Hquid media the growth appeared as a whitish grey puff- 

 ball, which later became yellowish or brownish, while the medium 

 remained clear and the growth fell to the bottom of the tube. 



On solid media it formed a greyish-white, duvet-covered growth, 

 which possessed a central button, surrounded by a radiation, and 

 later, when the culture was drier, the medium became coloured. 



Glycerine agar was best, as the growth thereon was luxurious, 

 and when old became yellowish in colour, while the medium showed 

 a caramel tinge in its entirety. 



Glucose glycerine agar produced a growth of the colour of touch- 

 wood. This culture is thrown into black wrinkles, producing an 

 appearance seen on some seashores. 



When the growths of M. tozeuri were compared with those of 

 M. my cetomi a number of differences were observed. 



The cultures of M. tozeuri grew more quickly, were more luxuriant, 

 and were white, resembling powdered flour. Those of M. mycetomi 

 were more discrete, grey, duveteuse, radiated, and sometimes showed 

 concentric circles, and disassociated more easily than the 

 preceding . 



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