FISTULOUS WITHERS, ETC. 
887 
mycosis it manifests itself as newly-formed tissue in the form 
of granulating- nodes and nodules, in the centre of which is a 
disintegrating pus-like mass, and which is more or less sur¬ 
rounded by masses of embryonic tissue. The knots are in some 
cases well defined in their margins, while in other cases they are 
continuous with the surrounding tissue, without any distinct 
outline. As a rule the disease remains local and spreads only 
to the adjacent tissue. It has, however, been observed as 
metastatic in the internal organs.” 
Notwithstanding the .fact that this affection has, from an 
early date, received the attention of a number of investigators, 
the classification of the specific cause has not as yet been made 
clear. All seem to agree that the disease is due to a micro¬ 
organism, spherical in shape and resembling micrococci in mor¬ 
phology, but they speak, of it always as a fungus and not as a 
bacterium. Some have taken exception to this, however, and 
declare that they have found only the common pus cocci in the 
so-called botryomycotic lesions. In reviewing the literature 
available upon this subject we find Bollinger,* in 1870, the first 
to propose the name botryomycosis for a disease which he de¬ 
scribed as causing fibromatous nodules in the lungs of horses. 
The derivation of the word is from the Greek (#or/?L>c), a bunch 
of grapes, and Qioxr^) a fungus. Bollinger’s discovery was con¬ 
sidered at that time as of little account. In 1878 Rivoltaf 
found fungi in the spermatic cord of horses after castration, 
which he termed discomycis equi , and which he thought allied 
to actinomycosis. They soon came to be considered as belong¬ 
ing to the micrococci and not to the ray fungi. RabeJ de¬ 
scribed what he called micrococcus botryogenus , and Johne§ 
called them micrococcus ascoformans. Johne also proposed 
calling the neoplasm a mycofibrom or mycodermoid. Kitt|| 
Virchow's Archives, Bd. XLIX. 
f Giornale di Anatomia and Fisiologia , 1884. 
t Deutsche Zeitschrift, Bd. XII. » 
\ Deutsche Zeitschrift , Bd. XII. 
|| Fnedberger Csf Frohner ( Hayes’ Translation.) 
