ON THE QUESTION OF BLASTOMYCOSIS OF THE SKIN AND ITS RELATION TO
“FOLLICULITIS EXULCERANS SERPIGINOSA NASI” (KAPOSI.) BRANDWEINER.
(_Archiv f. Derm. u. Syph._, August, 1904, p. 49. One plate.)
This paper is based on a case which occurred in Dr. Matzenauer’s
clinique in Vienna. The patient was a shoemaker, aged 37 years, who
suffered from a papillated crusted lesion on the lower part of the left
side of the nose. The diseased patch occupied the ala nasi, and extended
up as far as the bridge, where it faded into the surrounding skin. It
was reddish-brown in colour, raised and irregular in shape, and covered
with yellowish inspissated pus. It had been noticed first about a year
before. On histological examination the stratum corneum was found to
contain numerous unicellular organisms of from 4 to 10 µ in diameter,
which stained with polychrome methylene blue, were doubly contoured and
were believed to be blastomycetes. The epithelium had proliferated and
presented small necrotic pustules containing these organisms. There was
a round-celled infiltration in the corium in which the blastomyces was
also detected. An attempt to cultivate the organisms and to inoculate
them in lower animals was unsuccessful. On the ground of this not quite
convincing case the writer took the opportunity of reviewing the
literature on the subject. He referred in detail to several cases
described by Kaposi with the title of “Folliculitis exulcerans
serpiginosa nasi,” which he regarded as most probably identical with
“blastomycosis.”