TOKELAU RINGWORM. 169 



jects of these large ulcerous sores on the feet and legs. He tells me 

 that with rest and cleanliness they soon take on a healing action. 

 Carbolic oil was the application he used, and it seemed well suited 

 for these discharging, loathsome sores. Several of the men of the 

 *' Lark " were laid up with these ulcers of the feet for many weeks. 

 The ulcers in their case assumed a circular form with raised callous 

 edges and an irritable inflamed surface, being attended by much 

 pain in the surrounding parts. The free application of lunar caustic 

 every two or three daj'^s followed by poulticing, I found to be the 

 most effectual treatment. Dr. Livingstone, who was himself laid up 

 with these sores for eighty days in the interior of Africa, found the 

 best of all topical applications to be malachite rubbed down with 

 water on a stone and applied with a feather. The natives of 

 Treasury Island in the Solomon Group use an application prepared 

 by pounding the fruit of the Cycas circinalis, which grows near the 

 edge of the cliffs on the south coast of the adjacent Stirling Island. 



There is a loathsome skin disease very prevalent amongst the 

 inhabitants of this group, which is generally known as the Solomon 

 Island or Tokelau ringworm. I should estimate that two-fifths of 

 the total population of these islands are thus aflfected. We found it 

 more prevalent in some islands than in others. In Treasury, for 

 instance, four-fifths of the people are the subjects of this disease, and 

 half of the chief's wdves who number about thirty are almost covered 

 with it. In the southern large island of the Florida Islands, it ap- 

 peal's to affect quite one half of the population. It ranges from one 

 end of the group to the other, neither sex nor age affording any 

 immunity. The chiefs and their families, hoAvever, seem to be less 

 liable to this disease. The skin of every man does not appear to 

 afford a suitable nidus for the growth of the functus which is the 

 cause of the eruption ; and this is evident from the circumstance 

 that one parent may be covered with the disease while the other is 

 entirely free from it. This skin-eruption, although so repulsive in 

 appearance in the eyes of the European when he first visits the 

 group, is not viewed with any feelings of disgust by the natives ; 

 and even the European after spending some time in tht group learns 

 to disregard its repulsiveness. Those affected show no anxiety to 

 be quit of it and evince great indifference when any offer is made to 

 them to cure it. It is to them only an inconvenience ; and appar- 

 ently causes no irritation except when the skin is hot and perspiring, 

 as after exertion. 



