240 



Mycologia 



tient was admitted to the hospital, which was 12 years subsequent 

 to the thorn wound, the diseased tissues were washed out and 

 found to contain granules. These granules when crushed and ex- 

 amined with a microscope and also when sectioned showed the 

 presence of fungous hyphae. Portions of these granules when 

 transferred to culture media produced an abundant growth of an 

 apparently pure culture of the organism under discussion. 



The history of the case and the nature of the fungus appear to 

 indicate that this organism was probably introduced into the foot 

 with the thorn, and that it had remained there and was perhaps the 

 chief contributing cause of the pathological condition which de- 

 veloped later. Inoculation experiments conducted by Dr. Boyd 

 with guinea pigs were not successful in producing pathological 

 effects of the mycetoma type, the reactions observed in such cases 

 being only such as would be expected from the introduction of 

 a foreign body into the tissues. As the fungus does not appear 

 to be an anaerobic organism, it is difficult to understand how it 

 could have continued to live and develop for so long a period 

 within the tissues of the foot and ankle before any lesion occurred. 



Upon receiving the cultures of the fungus, sub-cultures in 

 poured plates were made to isolate ascospores and conidia and to 

 determine the life history of the organism and the genetic relations 

 of the three forms of fructification found. This was soon done 

 as the fungus develops readily on ordinary culture media, such as 

 cornmeal agar or glycerine agar, and in a few weeks produces all 

 the spore forms, beginning with conidia, which are regularly fol- 

 lowed by perithecia. The coremia (fig. 3) are not so uniform and 

 regular in appearance as the other spore forms and sometimes do 

 not develop until after perithecia have appeared. In culture on 

 cornmeal agar, colonies developed from spores are white at first, 

 soon becoming gray and with a radiate, fimbriate margin. As 

 conidia begin to form at the center the color becomes pale greenish- 

 ochraceous and the surface has much the same appearance as a 

 culture of Cladisporium herb arum. As the cultures become older 

 the growth becomes darker colored and more or less smoky-brown. 

 In a couple of weeks at ordinary laboratory temperatures an abun- 

 dance of small, globose, cleistogamous perithecia are produced just 



