EXPERIMENTAL MONOSPOROSIS

Abstract

The discouraging feature in the study of deep mycoses lies in the fact that one of Koch's requirements can but rarely be fulfilled: the reproduction of the disease in a suitable host. Even Koch¹ admitted that this point might be dispensed with under certain circumstances, yet in its absence every investigator feels that an important link in his chain of evidence is missing. Most fungi isolated from human mycoses prove to be entirely apathogen for laboratory animals. One group of these mycoses, the true mycetomas ( Pinoy) or maduromycoses (madura foot), which is characterized by the presence of grains of various colors and produced by fungi with thick, septate, mycelial filaments, has been particularly difficult to transmit to animals. Of all fungi isolated in the latter group. Monosporium apiospermum shows a fairly constant pathogenicity and the widest distribution. It was found to be the cause of maduromycosis in Italy by