2II4 



MYCETOMA AND PARAMYCETOMA 



In i860, Vandyke Carter began a series of classical observations 

 upon the black and yellow forms of Madura foot, which he continued 

 until 1874, and during which he firmly established the fungal 

 nature of the disease. 



His first paper (i860) was entitled ' On a New and Striking Form 

 of Fungus Disease affecting the Foot and Prevailing Endemically in 

 Many Parts of India.' In his second publication (i860) he clearly 

 differentiated between the white or ochroid division of the Myce- 

 tomas, which to-day we call ' actinomycosis,' and the black or 

 melanoid variety, which we now name ' black maduromycosis.' 

 He demonstrated that the black grains were of true vegetal nature, 

 with a black friable rind composed of clear, orange-tinted, ovoid 

 or angular cells and beaded fibres closely arranged so as to form a 

 compact structure, and in addition larger vesicular bodies (seemingly 

 comparable to gemmules or sporangia) , which he thinks may arise at 

 the extremities of the compressed beaded fibres by gemmation and 

 expansion. The pale reddish-brown central part of the larger 

 sclerotes was composed of slender, pale, flattened, and branching 

 fibres arranged in bundles and intermixed with numerous granules 

 and a few large beaded fibres, the septa of which were sometimes 

 absent. 



He placed some black particles, taken from a foot, on cotton soil 

 moistened with animal juices and enclosed in a stoppered bottle, 

 which he left unopened for two and three-quarter years, when he 

 found a thin reddish film had appeared. Other black particles sown 

 on rice paste for the same length of time remained unchanged, but 

 on opening the bottle a red mould speedily made its appearance. 



With reference to this mould, he says: ' It had not, however, a 

 clear connection with the fungus particles, but seemed to spring up 

 independently of them upon the rice whenever this was exposed to 

 the air.' 



This statement is of importance, as he grew a fungus from the 

 white variety which was pink in colour, and produced sporangia 

 resembling those of a species of the genus Mucor Micheli, 1729, but 

 differing therefrom in the absence of a columella, which should have 

 brought it under the genus Mortierella Coemans, 1863 ; but Berkeley, 

 who examined the growths from a botanical point of view, classified 

 it under the genus Chionyphe Thienmann, 1839, calling it Chionyphe, 

 carteri Berkeley, 1862, and defining it as:- — ' Hyphasmate ex albo 

 fiavorubroque, sporangiis demum coccineis, sporis breviter fusi- 

 f ormibus. ' 



The genus Chionyphe, however, was never recognized by myco- 

 ogists generally, as its species came under the genera Mortierella 

 or Mucor, while Chionyphe carteri was most undoubtedly a contami- 

 nation, as its connection with the black or white grains was never 

 proved, as we have noted above with regard to the former. 



Thus we may conclude that although Carter gave the first proof 

 of the parasitic nature of the grains, he was unable to produce 

 growths by cultivation from either the black or the white varieties. 



