730 DISEASES OF THE SKI>T. 



tliem with liquor potasspe, the vegetations can be discovered 

 microscopically — using a magnifying power of 300 diameters — 

 to consist of numerous little oval or rounded bodies ; the sporules 

 of the fungus having a diameter of about -g-fj-ViJ of an inch. A 

 number of cells united end to end form simple or jointed and 

 branching tubes, developed from the sporules. Little granules 

 or nuclei may be seen in the interior of the spores. The tubes 

 vary in diameter, and hairs in the vicinity of the favus crusts 

 are impregnated with the fungus. — (Bazin, Deafer, Aitken, 

 Anderson.) Mr. Erichsen considers " that the matter of favus 

 is a modification of tubercular disease of the skin," and this view 

 is supported to some extent by Bennett, who is of opinion that 

 the tubercular matter furnishes the soil from which the mycoder- 

 matous vegetations spring. 



Chemically, the matter of favus has been found by Thenard 

 to be composed of coagulated albumen, 70 ; gelatine, 17 ; phos- 

 phate of lime, 5 ; water and loss, 8 parts in every 100 parts. 



Of the transmissibihty of the disease from man to animals 

 there can be no doubt; the translations of Mr. Fleming from 

 the Continental journals furnish ample proofs of this fact. I 

 remember some years ago being called upon to attend a number 

 of animals, at a farm in Yorkshire, for ring-worm, the crusts upon 

 which presented, except on the horses, a yellow colour and 

 a honeycomb appearance. The disease had attacked over 

 twenty horned cattle, three horses, some dogs, and several cats. 

 One fact in connection with this outbreak was, that the cats 

 were very fond of sitting on the backs of the cows and horses, 

 and, doubtless, the disease had been caught from mice by the 

 cats, and transmitted by them to the other animals about the 

 place. 



llemak found that the sporules underwent developmental 

 changes on the cut surface of an apple, as well as in animal 

 fluids to which sugar had been added ; but no such changes 

 took place when they were mixed with distilled or spring 

 water, the serum of blood, solution of albumen, pus, muscle, or 

 any other animal tissue. In these cases, the animal tissue, as 

 well as the favus crust, became decomposed, and infusorial forma- 

 tions were developed. From this we learn that the achorion 

 grows under the same circumstances as all other moulds. 

 Inoculation with the favus crust does not always succeed, 



