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14
the similarity is suggestive. HoNcaAMP and ZIMMERMAN (28) fed
spores of a smut fungus, Tilletia, to horse, cow, rabbit, chicken,
and pigeons, and found that the spores had lost their vitality when
defecated. If the loss of vitality is due to the combined action of
temperature and gastric juice in the body, or to mere submergence
of the spores in the digestive fluids, as the authors think, is a
question not readily answered at present.
6. Pathogenic Properties of Moulds isolated from
Human and Animal Faeces.
Having discussed the moulds found in the alimentary canal
merely as obligate saprophytes, it now becomes necessary to consider
the pathogenic properties of these moulds. As is well known, many
species of moulds e. g. forms of Mucor and Aspergillus, furnish in-
structive examples of the phenomenon of facultative parasitism. If
spores of these forms gain a foothold in the nasal cavity, in the
ear, or in the lungs of man and warm-blooded animals, they may
cause serious disturbances or even death. The disease, known to
physicians as mycosis, may also be induced by injection of spores
of these pathogenic moulds into the blood vessels of animals. The
spores are conveyed by the blood to all parts of the body and
germinate readily in the kidneys and in the liver causing charac-
teristic derangements of the tissues, which —- if the quantity of the
spores injected is: large enough — may lead to the death of the
animal within a few hours. The destructive properties of these
moulds are: commonly claimed to be due to mechanical: irritation
of the organs attacked, although in recent times attention has also
been paid to the toxin-producing properties of these fungi.
With these facts in mind, the presence in the alimentary canal
of such forms as Aspergillus fumigatus, A. flavus, A. nidulans, and
A. niger, all of which are known to cause mycoses of various organs,
becomes a rather serious question, and the importance of it is not
lessened in the least, when the literature on this and related topics
is scrutinized.
The presence of fungi in the digestive apparatus is in itself no
peculiarity. Other body cavities communicating with the outer
world have been found to lodge various fungi. The mouth cavity
supports a characteristic bacterial flora (KüsrEenR 35) and species of
Mucor, Penicillium, Oidium, and Saccharomyces have been found in
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