The Effects Produced in the Rabbit by Feeding Cultures of Monilia psilosis.

Abstract

From a human case of typical Sprue, cultures of the Monilia psilosis were isolated both from the oral lesions and from the stools. These cultures were identical in biological characteristics, and corresponded in every manner to those described by Ashford 1 in his experimental work on Sprue. The organism grows in chains, has a motile body in the vacuole, forms dense mycelia and ferments saccharose, maltose, and levulose. Pure cultures were obtained by plating an emulsion on Sabouraud's medium. Several other forms of yeast were also obtained from foamy stools which do not, however, conform culturally to the true Monilia psilosis. These were employed as culture suspensions in feeding experiments upon control animals.

Seventeen full grown rabbits were employed, six of which were used as controls. The Monilia psilosis was cultured for 10 days in a 4 per cent dextrose bouillon. Two of the rabbits were injected intravenously with 1.0 cc. of this culture, and one of these was also injected with 0.2 cc. sublingually. Both rabbits died in approximately 24 hours and from each a pure culture of the Monilia was recovered from the heart's blood, kidneys and liver. Through this procedure the pathogenicity of the organism for the rabbit was determined.

Feeding En-perimerzts: Nine rabbits were fed with the 10 day culture of this same strain of Monilia grown in 4 per cent dextrose bouillon. The cultures were administered daily with oats and carrots. Of these 9 rabbits, 6 died between the 31st and 61st day. The three remaining animals continued entirely normal.