Die Toxomykose der Lunge.

Abstract

Kovats selects the diagnostic title, toxomycosis, for the illness produced by inhalation of an abundance of fungus spores. The spores produce an inflammatory reaction without proliferating, and therefore the reaction differs from the reaction to the mycoses for which the proliferation of the fungus is required. In 1932, the same year that Campbell described the syndrome caused by inhalation of moldy hay (farmer's lung), Kovats described a similar illness in the women who split moldy paprika pods. The preceding summer had been rainy, damp, and thus rather unsuitable for storage of vegetable materials because the conditions promoted spoilage and molding. Apparently neither Campbell nor Kovats was aware of the other's description of the disease produced by vegetable dusts. Kovats utilizes the disease in paprika splitters as the model for a great variety of illnesses, farmer's lung, bagassosis, byssinosis, etc. Moldy paprika pods are sources of great clouds of black dust