Observations on an ascospore stage for the parasites of blastomycosis hominis.

An ascospore stage in the life history of the organism of blatomycosis has not hitherto been recognized. In fact as great a mycological authority as Vuillemin 1 has included these organisms in the provisional genus Cryptococcus in which asci have never been observed.

These distinctive forms occurred exclusively in the so-called secondary colonies of the cultures, which also contained “dauernzellen” and pigmented oidia. The prolonged viability of the cultures is associated with these secondary colonies, while the primary non-pigmented growth derived from them is seldom viable after a month.

Certain forms pictured in the tissues by Wade 2 are quite comparable with these forms of special resistance in the cultures and form a plausible explanation of the great difficulty of eradication of the disease by therapeutic measures. Inasmuch as oidial stages are common to so many fungi, it may be in order to suggest allocation of the so-called oidiomyces (blastomyces hominis) with the ascomycetes.