348 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



follicles, under the influence of derangement or pecu- 

 liarity of constitution, seem to be most favourable to 

 the occurrence of nearly all the cutaneous diseases 

 which are attended by the presence of vegetal para- 

 sites. In the case of chloasma especially, we constantly 

 see that its presence is associated with the occurrence 

 of certain favouring conditions. Thus it is met with 

 most frequently in persons of delicate health, who wear 

 flannel next the skin and do not have recourse to 

 sufficiently frequent ablutions. The increased moisture 

 from retained secretion, and the increased heat, seem 

 sufficient in certain persons to engender this disease of 

 the skin. It is one of those affections in which we 

 have the least reason for supposing contagion necessary, 

 and in which we least frequently find any evidence of 

 it. In epithelial cells affected in this manner we fre- 

 quently may see a number of highly refractive particles 

 of various sizes, having a close resemblance to fatty 

 globules and granules, though they are probably com- 

 posed of a combination of fatty and albuminoid 

 matter 1 . These globules and particles are often in- 

 distinguishable from precisely similar-looking bodies, 



1 Such particles are always most abundant in the white secretion with 

 which some of the sebaceous follicles are apt to become filled. If a 

 specimen of it is mounted in a drop of distilled water and flattened by 

 a covering glass, and then enclosed in a wide-mouthed stoppered bottle 

 containing a little water, so as to prevent evaporation of the drop of 

 water in which the specimen is mounted, fungus filaments will often be 

 found to develop from all parts of the sebaceous mass in the course of 

 two or three days. 



