TREATMENT OF FAVUS. 18. 



Sometimes there is seen an epidermal secretion on tfie places 

 occupied by favi, such as is the case with pityriasis, which, how- 

 ever, need not cause any anxiety, and which disappears easily 

 after washing with water and applying lard. 



Treatment by Hebra. He thinks Herpes tonsurans and Favus 

 to be identical, and believes that the disease may get well spon- 

 taneously, and, with more reason, that no cure is possible without 

 epilation. To produce the latter by means of the Jew's nightcap 

 is, unfortunately, too painful, though the result might well justify 

 such barbarism. 



It appears to me that the principal task in an efficient treat- 

 ment consists in finding out the mildest method of epilation. 

 The arrangement which Hebra made in his clinical hospital (and 

 which exists still, I believe), that diseased children should tear 

 out one another's hair, is, no doubt, very recommendable, and 

 saves time to the physician a sacrifice which Gudden was not 

 afraid of making. Some believe that the disease may be cured 

 by drenching the head underneath a spout of rain-water. Cures 

 without epilation are tedious, insufficient, and little reliable. 

 This method would, I believe, deserve more consideration if it 

 were preceded by epilation ; and the nature of the disease might 

 render the following treatment very useful. The hairs are to be 

 torn out on the favous parts, and a lukewarm " douche " allowed 

 to fall, for ten to fifteen minutes, on the child in a warm bath. 

 In case of relapses, epilation is resorted to, followed by the 

 douche. In private dwellings, where it is inconvenient to make 

 space for a douche-apparatus, a watering-pot, or simple syringe 

 of large size, may be used instead, provided with the fine sieve 

 of a watering-pot, fitting well, such as is used in watering hot- 

 house plants. If the operator has merely to do with very small 

 spots of favi, he may conveniently use syringes with a round 

 beak, such as are employed in diseases of the eye, and which 

 may be bought from Jerak, at Prague, and at other places. 



Treatment of Boeck, of Christiania (Giinsburg's l Zeitschrift/ v, 

 1, p. 50). Boeck also acknowledges that the Jew's nightcap 

 answers its purpose, but he considers the action thereof too 

 violent, for it often happens that the forcible removal of a large 

 pitch-plaster removes far more than the mere hair a process 

 which is therefore as dangerous as it is painful. This may, 

 however, be modified by covering the head with eight to ten 

 cuneiform pieces of a very efficient sticking-plaster, the 



