Ringworm and alopecia areata : their pathology, diagnosis and treatment / by H. Aldersmith.

  • Aldersmith, Herbert, -1918.
Date:
1897
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ringworm and alopecia areata : their pathology, diagnosis and treatment / by H. Aldersmith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/412 (page 5)
    Investigations in England (especially those published by Thin in 1881 and 1887 ^) conclusively proved that Neumann's theory (viz., that the fungus of ringworm is identical with Penicillium glaucum) is incorrect. Thin showed that the former mistakes were due to foul cultivations, and said: If hairs from the head of a perfectly healthy person are cultivated in any ordinary media, unless special precautions are taken and carried out by the skill of the expert, many of the hairs will be found to have their roots enveloped in a thick mesh of fungus, which, microscopically, it is hard, and perhaps impossible, to distinguish from Trichophyton tonsurans. A distinction, however, is to be made by crucial cultivations. The Penicillium, Aspergillus, Mucor, etc., which observers have found in their cultivations, did not come from the Trichophyton tonsurans, but their spores fell into the media of cultivation from the air, or were introduced into them by the instruments em- ployed. Agam, the Achorion Schdnleinii (the fungus of favns) is a distinct species, and can give only the same disease—2.6., favus. In the present day, it would be mere waste of time to adduce proof (as in former editions) that the fungi of favus and tinea versicolor are distinct from that of ring- worm ; for it is universally accepted that the fungus of ringworm is a fungus sui generis, and that, when successful inoculations are made, the parasitic disease produced is always the same as that from which the parasite was taken. The Microsporon Audouini and the Trichophyton megalo- sporon always produce Tinea tonsurans, or Tinea circinata ; ' On Trichophyton tonsurans, Proc. Roy. Soc, No. 217, 1881 ; Pathology and Treatment of Ringworm, 1887. ^ Pathology and Treatment of Ringworm, 1883.