LXXX.—BLASTOMYCOSIS, COCCIDIOIDAL GRANULOMA AND PARACOCCIDIOIDAL GRANULOMA

Abstract

The term blastomycosis in its medical interpretation has come to denote a more or less definite clinical syndrome with a multiplicity of causative agents. The disease has been so named because of the finding in the affected tissue or pus of budding yeastlike cells which are ordinarily termed blastomycetes—hence, blastomycosis. This is particularly evident to readers of dermatologic publications, since the skin as a tissue is the recipient of approximately 95 per cent of infections by these organisms. Impetus has been given to publications on this disease by the increased interest in the action of pathologic fungi and the determination and differentiation of these microbes, but more particularly by the severity of the infection and the ever increasing number of persons affected. For a mycologist it is gratifying to realize that greater importance is being attributed to this group of pathogens, but it is just as discouraging to know that