MONILIA 



loSi 



Geographical Distribution. — Possibly world-wide. 



Biological Characters.— Some species clot milk, others have no 

 action on this medium; some species liquefy gelatine and serum. 

 Certain fungi of this genus, when growing on serum, produce a 

 peculiar zone of brownish or black discoloration of the medium all 

 round the growth using the serum of Bos indicus. The bio- 

 chemical properties and sugar reactions vary from species to 

 species. Rabbits can be immunized for these fungi, and attempts 

 to use the immunization and agglutination reactions in the differ- 

 entiation of the various species have been made with only partial 

 success, as there is a large production of co-agglutinins in addition 

 to the specific ones for very different fungi — e.g., fungi of the genus 

 Sporotrichum. 



Pathogenicity. — Fungi of this genus are the aetiological agents of 

 thrush, some types of bronchomycoses, and some dermatomycoses. 



Classification.^ — -There has been and there is still a great deal of 

 confusion in the classification of such fungi. Many of the species of 

 this genus can hardly be distinguished by purely morphological and 

 botanical characters. We are of opinion that the classification 

 should be based, not only on morphological data, but also on bio- 

 chemical characters and immunization phenomena. Among the 

 biochemical properties, the most important are the actions on milk, 

 gelatine, serimi, and on sugar broths. A large number of sugars 

 should be used in the same manner as is done in the classification 

 of the various species of intestinal bacteria. It is to be noted that 

 the reactions with certain sugars are constant, while with others 

 (for instance, mannite) these may vary; and the fermentative power 

 on certain sugars — e.g., galactose- — may be rapidly lost. Hence 

 species should be compared only in strains recently isolated. It is 

 to be noted also that in analogy to intestinal bacteria, a species 

 may be trained to ferment certain sugars on which it did not act 

 when recently isolated. 



While taking all this into account, we believe the investigation 

 of the various biochemical reactions to be of great value for classify- 

 ing these fungi, and for this purpose give the table on pp. 1082, 10^3. 



Determination of Species.— By means of the sugar reactions 

 it is possible to divide the species of Monilia into groups by the use 

 of the following carbohydrates — viz., glucose, levulose, maltose, 

 galactose, saccharose, inulin, and dextrin. When the Monilia is 

 classified into its group it is easy, by means of the table on 

 pp. 1082, 1083, to make the specific determination: — 



A. Gas produced in glucose only — Group I., Balcanica group: — M, bal- 



canica, M. parahalcanica. 



B. Gas produced in glucose and levulose — Group II., Krusei group: — 



M. krusei, M. parakrusei. 



C. Gas produced in glucose, levulose, and maltose — Group III., Pinoyi 



group: — M. pinoyi, M. nabarroi. 



D. Gas produced in glucose, levulose, maltose, and galactose — Group IV., 



Metalondinensis group; — M. metalondinensisy M. pseudometalon- 

 dinensis. 



