The lack of agreement on the part of many writers as to the etiology and pathology of mycosis fungoides has led to a careful study of two cases observed at the Boston City Hospital and to the following report of this investigation.
Three main theories have been advanced concerning the type of changes taking place in the skin. First, the skin tumors have been regarded by many authors, including Köbner,1 Virchow,2 Payne,3 DeAmicis,4 Stelwagon and Hatch,5 Krasnoglasow,6 Auspitz,7 Phillipson,8 Hyde and Montgomery,9 Hochsinger and Schiff,10 as granulomata, either infectious or non-infectious. Second, Kaposi,11 Funk,12 Crocker,13 Ranvier,14 Pinkus,15 Lerrede and Weil,16 Besnier17 and others believe the tumors to be sarcomata. This view is largely supported by the German writers. A third group (Pellagotti,18 Landouzy,19 Debove,20 Demange,21 Gaillard,22 Tanturri23