RINGWORM 475 



They can be examined by removing a portion of the growth, 

 teasing up gently with needles in a little 50 per cent, alcohol con- 

 taining a trace of ammonia, removing the surplus fluid with blotting- 

 paper, and mounting in Farrant's solution or in glycerine jelly.* 

 If desired, they may be stained by the irrigation method with f uchsin. 

 Thrush may be examined in this way. 



In the tissues they may be stained with hsematoxylin or methylene 

 blue, or by Gram's or by Weigert's method. 



Ringworm 



The ringworm fungi must probably be included in the 

 group of the Hyphomycetes. Human ringworm, formerly 

 regarded as a single disease, has been proved to comprise 

 at least two affections through the researches of Sabouraud. 

 These two forms are distinguished from each other clini- 

 cally and by differences in the parasitic organisms. 



The first variety is an affection of early childhood, 

 forming 80 to 90 per cent, of the ringworms met with in 

 London ; it never attacks the scalp of adults, never affects 

 the beard or nails, is very intractable, and frequently 

 epidemic. The parasite is characterised by small round 

 or ovoid spores measuring 3 /x to 4 /x in diameter. Affected 

 hairs are generally broken off, forming relatively long 

 stumps, greyish in colour, and possessing a whitish sheath. 

 When suitably prepared in potash this sheath is seen to 

 be composed of the spores agglomerated together without 

 apparent order, and the hairs themselves are filled with 

 delicate parallel mycelial threads (Fig. 52). The fungus is 

 named the Microsporon Audouini. 



The second variety comprises the ringworms with large 

 spores, and is divided into two groups by Sabouraud. The 

 first of these groups is exclusively of human origin, and 

 has a marked tendency to affect the interior of the hairs 

 only, and hence the organism has been termed the Tricho- 

 phyton megalosporon endothrix. The other group is of 

 animal origin, and the spores are met with chiefly on the 



