TWO CASES OF SPOROTRICHOSIS INFECTION DUE TO BARBERRY

Sporotrichosis is a chronic infectious granulomatous disease, characterized by cutaneous and internal lesions due to the growth of parasitic fungi of the sporotrichosis group. The first accurate description of the condition and identification of the infecting fungus was made by Schenk of Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1896. Since that time 165 cases have been reported in America, eighteen of which were reported by Foerster,¹ to whose article the reader is referred for a more extensive history and description of the disease. Fourteen of Foerster's cases occurred in employees of a tree nursery and at least ten were undoubtedly acquired by inoculation with the thorns of the barberry shrub. The average duration of the disease before recognition among fifty-one cases previously described was four months, and the average period of treatment before recovery was sufficient to permit the patient to return to work was twenty-six days, which indicates an average period