Trichophyton album (Sabouraud, 1909)

Abstract

The author describes in detail the case of a boy with lesions in the scalp and in the glabrous skin, due to T. album (Sabouraud, 1909). The microscopic examination of the affected hairs showed a Megasporum as the cause. The cultures in Sabouraud's sugar media could not be obtained at first, while the culture media tubes were kept at room temperature; later on, when put in the incubator at 28°C, the colonies began to appear, showing, by and by, the features of T. (faviforme) album, The author took the opportunity to verify the behaviour of that fungus in the so-called staphylococcus based media, as previously done by BAUDET. In such media the cultures grew well even at room temperature; they became vigorous, no longer glabrous but hairy and microscopically showed to be no longer formed by sterile filaments, as happened in the sugar media, but presented great quantity of reproductive organs. In other words, the T. (faviforme) album, when cultivated in more favorable media as surely is, for it, the staphylococcus based medium, looses its faviforme feature. BAUDET is right in suggesting the exclusion of the word faviform in the above expression. The author tried also, in the same staphylococcus based medium, the culture of other fungus of glabrous culture - the T. violaceum - but did not obtain changes in either the macro - or microscopic features of its cultures.