OCCURRENCE OF COCCIDIODAL GRANULOMA 
(OIDIOMYCOSIS) IN CATTLE 
By E. T. Giltnrr 
Pathological Division , Bureau of Animal Industry , United States Department of 
Agriculture 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISEASE IN MAN 
Wernicke (12) 1 in 1892 discovered the parasite of oidiomycosis in a 
Brazilian soldier suffering from a peculiar skin affection and described 
it as a protozoon. Later his pupil Posadas (7, 8 ) made a careful study 
of the pathologic features of this case, and demonstrated the infectiousness 
of material from the lesion for several experiment animals. Rixford 
(9, jo), who in 1894 reported a case in a patient living in California, 
was the first to describe the disease in this country, and two years later 
Rixford and Gilchrist ( 11 ) made a further study of the malady, naming 
the causative organism “ Coccidioides immitis ,” believing it to be of 
protozoan nature. In 1900 Ophuls and Moffit (6), having obtained 
cultures of the parasite, were the first to class it as a mold, and since that 
year Ophuls (5), Wolbach (13), MacNeal and Taylor (4), and others 
have established the exact manner of its development as a parasite and 
on artificial media. 
Coccidioidal granuloma in man does not appear to be a widely dis¬ 
tributed affection, nearly all of the cases reported being in patients living 
in the San Joaquin Valley, California. According to Lipsitz (j), out of 
40 cases reported up to the year 1916, all but 3 were from this locality, 
and Dickson (2) states that 35 of the patients were residents of California 
and 3 had visited the State. The relatively small number of cases re¬ 
ported is thought by Ophuls (5) to be due to the fact that an occasion 
for infection is very rarely given; others believe that its striking simi¬ 
larity to tuberculosis and certain other diseases causes even the expe¬ 
rienced clinician to err sometimes in exact diagnosis. 
The disease is observed most frequently in adult males of the laboring 
class; the primary infection atria being often found in the skin which 
has been subjected to injury or pricked by some foreign body, possibly 
a harborer of the specific fungus. The infection appears also to take 
place primarily by inhalation and possibly by ingestion. However, 
there still seems to be some doubt as to the manner of transmission of the 
1 Reference is made by number (italic) to ‘‘Literature cited," p. 540. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. XIV, No. xa 
Washington, D. C. ( 533 ) Sept. x6, 1918 
pn Key No. A - 43 
