Pathology and treatment of ringworm / by George Thin.

  • Thin, George.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathology and treatment of ringworm / by George Thin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/96 (page 8)
    ^iihe whole cycie °f the devei~ °f The fungus being a minute object its structure can only be seen by using a microscope, a power of from 250 to 500 diameters being very suitable for the observation. There is absolutely nothing in the appearance of the spores or mycelium to distinguish them from those of many other microscopic fungi, known and unknown; a fact that has led to errors of observation which have been copied and handed down from one book to another until they have become classic We only know that we are dealing with Trichophyton ton- surans when we find it associated with the disease that it causes, or when we find that the fungus we are studying fulfils the characteristic conditions of growth in artificial cultivation Trichophyton tonsurans grows on the skin of mau, the horse cow, dog, cat, mouse, and rabbit, and it can be communicated by contact from any one of these animals to the other. Its most frequent seat is the hairy scalp of young persons of both sexes under the age of puberty. Probably next in frequency comes the skin of the horse; and after the horse that of the doa and the cow. In man certain conditions peculiar to the in- dividual or climate, or both combined, render the skin favourably predisposed to its development. But there seems little doubt that the most favourable soil for its growth is the scalp of children the anatomical conditions of which are specially favourable both to the protection and the observation of the fungus. The perusal of even recent works on Diseases of the Skin would not lead the reader to believe that Trichophyton tonsurans is a specific fungus which is only to be found in the skin of certain animals. Indeed authors of the highest authority have expressed a contrary opinion. Hebra and Neumann have stated that the fungus is identical with Penicillium glaucum whilst Lowe, in 1850, was led to believe by his experiments that Trichophyton tonsurans is a spore-formation of Aspergillus and Dr. Atkinson believed that he had shown that the fundus belongs to the Mucors and is probably Mucor Muccalo. 0 a formor parcr on Trichopkton ionm> *™