30 



was not successful here, and carbolic and nitric acids were 

 used, but successive growths in various parts of the body 

 occurred during a space of some twelve months. Meantime 

 the adults in the same family were one after another subject 

 to the same attacks. In one case of a very obstinate nature 

 only one spot, about one inch in diameter, appeared on the 

 upper lip ; this was treated at once with carbolic acid, or 

 benzol, and the cuticle in two or three days was renewed, 

 and the spot had apparently disappeared. In a few days a 

 ring, external to the one destroyed, began to show itself 

 This was again destroyed with carbolic acid, and then an 

 irregular growth commenced, the ring, although interrupted, 

 was yet easily seen in the position that the various patches 

 occurj-ed upon the face, nose, temples, and forehead, the 

 hairs of the upper lip being the worst. 



Three names were given, by another authority, to the 

 disease at this stage, viz. — favus, tinea circinatus, and tinea 

 sycosis. It was at this stage that I made the microscopical 

 examination of the hairs of the upper lip, and at the same 

 time became aware of the unsatisfactory state of our know- 

 ledge on this and kindred subjects. 



For a long time all my efforts were fruitless. I could 

 neither get spores nor mycelium, nor anything giving indi- 

 cations of what I sought. Having obtained some of the 

 hairs shaved from the upper lip, and having washed these 

 with absolute alcohol, then with benzol, and afterwards 

 mounted them in balsam, mycelium chains became distinctly 

 visible, clothing the diseased hairs very thickly. 



This was sufficient proof of the fungoid character of the 

 parasite, but I wanted to see the spores also. 



Chancing to examine the alcohol with which the hairs 

 had been washed, small transparent bodies were seen, which 

 looked like spores. These, mounted in glycerin, changed 

 their shape, appearing to swell out and lose their character, 

 and in balsam becoming so transparent as to escape detection. 



