MADUROMYCOSES 



2115 



In i860, Minas wrote upon ' keereenagoah ' of the foot, as seen in 

 the Punjab. The term used is a vernacular word signifying worm 

 disease. He states that the characteristic symptom of the complaint 

 is gradual enlargement of the foot, usually starting with a swelling 

 in the sole associated with the presence and constant discharge ot 

 small particles, either soft or black and hard, from fistulous openmgs. 



Collas (1861) described black maduromycosis as seen in Pondichery. 

 He recognized the little bodies of blackish or reddish brown colour, 

 which in their clearer parts seemed to be formed of small transparent 

 cells, which he could not sufficiently study. He called the disease 

 ' degeneration endemique des os du pied.' 



H. J. Carter (1862) came to the conclusion that the fungus of 

 black maduromycosis was nearly allied to Mucor stolonifer Ehr en- 

 berg, 1818, the spores of which in an amoeboid state he considered 

 entered the body through the sudorific ducts. Berkeley (1862) 

 mentioned the fungus in question; he gave it the name Chionyphe 

 carteri, a nomenclature which he subsequently repeated (1865). 



In 1867, Moore reported an important early case in which he 

 effected a cure by cutting and scraping away all the diseased tissues, 

 and he augmented this in 1873 by recording two more cases of a 

 similar nature, treated in the same way with a like result. 



In 1870, Holmsted, of Hyderabad, Sind, found a thorn of irregular 

 shape and ^ inch long in a case of black mycetoma, in which it 

 had been embedded for two years. In the same year, Bristowe 

 described and figured the fungus seen in the black particles of a 

 foot from a case of black maduromycosis amputated in Cantoor, 

 and demonstrated to the Pathological Society of London by Tilbury 

 Fox. Bristowe' s descriptions and figures are excellent, and amply 

 confirm Vandyke Carter's work. Thudichum chemically examined 

 the black pigment of this case, and showed that it was not derived 

 from blood. 



Hogg (1872) described a black maduromycosis from India, in 

 which he was able to observe the fungal threads and to resolve them 

 into jointed dissepiment ed cells, some branching out and attaining 

 a considerable length, while others terminated in an enlarged ovoid 

 head. He, however, believed that the fungus was a secondary 

 product, which might greatly aggravate but did not originate the 

 disease, and suggested that it might be introduced at the time of 

 the first accident when the foot was struck against a stone, or by the 

 poultices used as treatment in a later stage. 



Vandyke Carter (1874) published his monumental and classical 

 work ' On Mycetoma, or the Fungus Disease of India,' which con- 

 cluded his long-continued labours at this complaint. 



Lewis and Cunningham (1875) admitted the fungal nature of 

 the black particles, but not of the yellow granules. They showed 

 that Chionyphe carteri had nothing to do with black or yellow grains. 



In 1876, Berkeley came to the conclusion that Chionyphe carteri 

 had nothing to do with mycetoma, a point which can be easily 

 judged from the passages quoted above. 



