INFECTION OF THE HUMAN EYE WITH CRYPTOCOCCUS NEOFORMANS (TORULA HISTOLYTICA; CRYPTOCOCCUS HOMINIS): A Clinical and Experimental Study with a New Diagnostic Method

SINCE slightly more than 100 cases of infection with Cryptococcus neoformans (Torula histolytica; Cryptococcus hominis) have been reported in the literature up to the present time, the disease should no longer be considered rare. The clinical, histopathologic and mycologic features have been adequately reviewed by Stoddard and Cutler,¹ Freeman,² Binford,³ Dodge,⁴ Benham⁵ and Cox and Tolhurst.⁶ Although a variety of ocular complications, including photophobia, diplopia, ptosis, rigidity of the pupils, amblyopia, strabismus, aniseikonia, nystagmus, neuroretinitis, papilledema, retinal hemorrhages, primary optic nerve atrophy and ophthalmoplegia, have been observed with a fair degree of regularity in this disease (Bettin⁷; Freeman^2a; Holt⁸; Marshall and Teed⁹; Watts¹⁰; Reeves, Butt and Hammack¹¹; Wade and Stevenson,¹² and others), few ophthalmologists have had the opportunity to make the diagnosis¹³; and only one communication dealing with an orbital infection due to C. neoformans has