CHAPTER LXIII 



RHINOSPORIDIOSIS AND SARCO- 

 SPORIDIOSIS 



Rhinosporidiosis — The Sarcosporidioses— Sergentelliasis^ — References. 



RHINOSPORIDIOSIS. 



Definition. — Rhinosporidiosis is a chronic infection caused by 

 Rhinosporidium seebcri Wernicke, 1900, and characterized by the 

 production of potypi on mucous membranes and papillomata on 

 cutaneous surfaces. 



History. — ^The disease was first recognized by Malbran in South 

 America in 1892, then by Seebcr in 1896 in Buenos Aires, in a nasal 

 polypus occurring in a young man aged nineteen years. In 1900 

 he gave a description of the parasite and its development, which 

 we have been unable to obtain, but which is said to be a most 

 excellent account. Later he found two other cases in the same 

 town, and in 1900 the parasite was named Coccidium secberi by 

 Wernicke. 



In 1903 Kinealy reported to the Laryngological Society a peculiar 

 case of a polypus which he had found in 1894 growing from the 

 septum of the nose of an Indian in Calcutta in the form of a pedun- 

 culated, raspberry-like body, with whitish spots on the generally red 

 surface. On section this tumour was found to have peculiar bodies 

 embedded in it. It was then carefully examined and described 

 by Minchin and Fantham, who came to the conclusion that the 

 peculiar bodies were Haplosporidians, and named them Rhinospori- 

 dium kinealyi. In 1905, Nair of Madras found similar nasal polypi 

 in several people, who all came from the small native State of Cochin, 

 on the west coast of India. These polypi were carefully described 

 by Beattie in 1906. 



In 1910 we observed the same parasite in a nasal polypus in 

 Ceylon, and in the same year Ingram published an account of its 

 occurrence in a conjunctival polypus and in a papilloma on the penis. 



In 1914 Tirumurti gave a most excellent account of the disease. 



In 1918 Chelliah, in Ceylon, not merely confirmed our original 

 discovery of the disease in that island, but reported several more 

 cases in Singhalese and moormen. 



Climatology. — Rhinosporidiosis occurs in South America, in 

 India, and in Ceylon, and quite possibly in other regions. 



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