The capacity of certain fungi to vegetate harmlessly on human skin (saprophytic or nonpathogenic state) is now generally admitted. Benham and Hopkins1 and many investigators outside of the United States have recovered various species of Monilia and other yeastlike fungi from the healthy skin of normal persons. Because of this universality the finding of Monilia in scrapings from diseased skin does not necessarily establish that fungus as the etiologic agent. But Monilia is a facultative fungus in that it possesses the capability of assuming a pathogenic role. The problem confronting the clinician is to determine when the fungus is really the responsible pathogenic agent in a given case.
Von Graffenried2 is credited as the first to prove the pathogenic effect on human skin of Monilia derived from interdigital lesions. Subsequently the reproduction of identical lesions on normal skin by inoculation of yeastlike organisms obtained from existing lesions was