Evening star., 1939-08-06
Three Capital Doctors
Give Description Of
Rare MaIady
'Histop!osmosis' Case
Here Eighth Known in
Medical Literature

Believed to be only the fourth case
reported in the United States, and
the eighth in all medical literature,
the rare malady of "histoplasmosis," )"
or "Darling's disease" was described
yesterday by three Washington phy-
sicians as the cause of death of an
11-month-ol girl in Children's Hos
pital last August.
Account of the case appeared in
the journal of the American Medi-
cal Association, published in Chi
cago, and appearing in Washing
ton yesterday.
The patient, identified only as
"F. c., white girl, aged II months"
had come from Paeonian Springs,
Va, whence she had been referred
by DR.. w. G. Barr. She was taken
to Children's Hospital July %, 1888,
and died August IL.
The case was described in the trea-
tise for the journal by Dr. Reginald
H. Mitchell, DR.. Frank J. Shaffer
and DR.. John F. Shaul of this city.
May Be More Common.
I'VE feel that our case merits at
tention," declared the physicians,
since it is the eighth case of his
toplasmosis to be reported in the
medical literature, and the fourth
in the United States. In spite of
its apparent rarity, We believe that
the disease may be more common
in this country than is generally
believed, and for this reason its
clinical picture, pathology and pos
sible epidemiologic aspects deserve
the interest of the medical profess
sion"
The evidence in the case, the
doctors reported, agreed closely with
that in the case named 80 years
ago by Darling, who first described
the disease as IAN overwhelming
parasitic invasion of all the body
tissues, including the bone marrow
which involved especially the large
mononuclear cells" Some differ
ences with the early Darling cases
were discovered here, but the physi-
clans concluded it was genuine
case of "histoplasmosis.'
Since the disease was first de-
scribed y =" declared the Washing
ton physicians. little has been writ
ten on the geographic distribution
mode of transmission and possible
natural reservoirs. Darling said
that its most likely origin was in
Martinique or Panama, since two
of his patients Gin Panama were
Martinique Negroes residing in
Panama His third patient, Chi
nese, had lived on the Isthmus for
IS years prior to his death.
Four Cases in Tropics.
1.-THE rapidly improving sanitary
conditions of the Canal Zone, Darl-
ing felt, were responsible for it's
apparent disappearance from this
area. He prophesied, however, that
histoplasmosis would be encoun-
tered in some part of tropical
America not yet disturbed by the
sanitarian The thought that it
might be found on the North Ameri-
can continent he expresses in an
other writing: New World disorder
is bound to appear in Baltimore
some day"
AS far as could be ascertained, the
physicians pointed out only seven
cases had been reported up to 1884,
all of which had occurred in the
Western Hemisphere. Four were
found in the tropics, including three
in Panama, and one in Honduras.
The remaining three were reported
from Minnesota, California and
Tennessee. The racial distribution
varied.
The discussion of the rare disease
In the journal covers four pages,
with four illustrations, showing par
asitic bodies found by the post
mortem examination.
Because of the rarity of the dis
ease some of the scientific slides
have been placed on file at the
Army Medical Museum here, where
interested physicians may view
them.