OTITIS EXTERNA MYCOTICA: COMMENTS CONCERNING THE PREVALENCE, DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF OTOMYCOSIS

Abstract

PREVALENCE It has long been known that various fungi are parasitic on man. They have been found as the primary causative agents of secondary invaders in various diseases of the skin, lesions of the eyes and ears, disorders of the respiratory and digestive tracts and urethral discharges. It is interesting to note that the study and investigation of fungi began before those of bacteria. Hooke¹in 1677, during the reign of Charles II, constructed a magnifying lens by means of which, examining the yellow spots so often seen on roses, he found that they consisted of a filamentous fungus. He left some remarkably good drawings and gave an accurate description of them, stating that fungi arose from decaying matter by spontaneous generation. Micheli¹in 1729 gave an account of the genus Aspergillus, but parasitic fungi in man did not attract serious attention until the last century. Lagenbeck²in 1839 discovered the