EXPERIMENTAL AND CLINICAL GRANULOMA INGUINALE

Many investigators have asserted that they have cultured an organism comparable to the Donovan body on a variety of mediums, particularly Sabouraud's.1 However, the types of organisms cultivated by the various investigators have not been identical. Moreover, subcutaneous inoculation of such organisms into human beings has failed in every instance to reproduce the typical lesions of granuloma inguinale.2 It is therefore doubtful that the etiologic agent of this disease has ever been cultivated. On the other hand we have on several occasions aspirated material from unruptured inguinal abscesses (pseudobuboes) of granuloma inguinale in which the sole micro-organism present was the Donovan body. In attempting to corroborate the observations of previous investigators we met with utter failure to cultivate the Donovan body or any other organism from this material.3 Since a pure culture of Donovan bodies was contained in the aspirated pus, we felt that some light might