RINCXVORM. 37 



off. The patches feel thickened, and may be hotter than the rest of the head, and 

 the child usually complains of itching of the part. 



Hingworm of the scalp is generally more difficult to cure than ringworm of the 

 body, the reason being that the fungus is more difficult to reach when remedies are 

 applied to hairy parts. The hair must be cut as close as possible all over and round 

 the patch. It often goes to a mother's heart to have to rob a pretty child of its 

 flowing locks ; but if she be a wise woman she will steel her heart for the 

 trial, for we are sure that the long duration of many cases of ringworm is 

 entirely due to the unwillingness of friends to permit the only proper and rational 

 treatment. The hair having been removed, and the part having been moistened 

 by the application of hot-water dressing for a time, the best remedy is to apply 

 very carefully and thoroughly with a brush a freshly-prepared solution of sulphurous 

 acid, which (if good) should possess the characteristic and penetrating odour of a 

 burning sulphur match. Carbolic acid and glycerine, creosote ointment, and sulphur 

 ointment, are also favourite remedies. During the treatment, the part should be 

 kept perfectly clean, and the local remedies should be applied at least twice a day. 

 The treatment of these two varieties of ringworm must not, however, be entirely 

 local in all cases. Vegetable fungi do not grow on all soils, and the healthy skin 

 of a child is probably quite incapable of nourishing them. Ringworm probably 

 always shows one of two things, either that the child is out of health, or that the 

 skin, either from dirt, neglect, or accident, has become irritable and slightly inflamed. 

 It is necessary to attend to these points, and to give constitutional and other remedies 

 if the child be in need of them, and to give the most scrupulous and unremitting 

 attention to cleanliness. It is a foolish, a dangerous, and always a troublesome, 

 practice to allow the hair of children to grow long. In this state it requires an 

 enormous amount of attention, it is kept clean only with difficulty, and affords 

 a dangerous lurking-place for vermin, or the seeds of fungi, which, for aught we know 

 to the contrary, are always floating in the air ready to take root directly a fitting 

 soil is afforded them. It is the fashion on the Continent to crop the hair 

 of children as closely as possible, and it would be well if the custom were more 

 general in this country. " Long hair," says Sir Garnet Wolseley in his " Soldier's 

 Pocket Book," "is the glory of a woman, and the shame of a man." We wish 

 it were considered a shame in little children also. In treating ringworm, we must 

 warn the reader that after the application of the remedies, and after the death 

 possibly of the fungus, the patch may remain red and scurfy. We must not be in 

 too great a hurry to make fresh applications of the parasiticide unless we are sure 

 that the patch is actually extending at the edge. The application of glycerine 

 of borax is generally sufficient in these cases to restore the head or skin to its natural 

 condition. 



There is a pseudo ringworm of the head which is happily not very common in 

 this country. It is clue, like ordinary ringworm, to the growth of a fungus. It 

 seldom occurs on the body, and it is very liable to cause permanent baldness of 

 the spot which has been affected, which ordinary ringworm never does. This 

 disease is called favus, and in it the head is covered with yellow crusts, which have 

 a disagreeable foetid odour which reminds one of mice. It is a disease very difficult 



