TOKELAU RINGWORM 171 



nent character, produced in the colour of the skin through tlie 

 influence of abnormal action. Dr. Tjlor in one of his lectures ^ 

 alludes to " the morbid appearance of race-character " produced by 

 the bronzing of the skin in Addison's disease, which is .shown to be 

 immediately due to a deposit of pigment in the rete mucosuni closely 

 resembling that of the negro. " The importance of the comparison," 

 he says, " lies in its bridging over the physiological differences of 

 race, by showing that morbid action may bring about in one race 

 results more or less analogous to the normal type in another." To 

 the partial decoloration of the skin in Tokelau ringwoim and to 

 the bronzing of the skin in Addison's disease, these remarks equally 

 appl3^ 



This disease has been variously spoken of by diflerent authors 

 and travellers as Leprosy, Icthyosis, Psoriasis, Pityriasis versicoloiv 

 and Tokelau Ringworm, of which it is needless to remark that the 

 last is the only name which is correct. The medical officers of the 

 United States Exploring Expedition, under Commodore Wilkes in 

 1841, were the first to recognise the nature of the eruption in the 

 case of the inhabitants of the Depeyster Islands in the Ellice Group.^ 

 In 1874 Dr. Tilbury Fox, after having examined some scrapings of 

 the skin which had been sent to him from Samoa, published in the 

 "Lancet" (A.ugust 29th) a paper on "Tokelau Ringworm and its 

 Fungus," in which he established the true character of the disease, 

 and disposed of a view held by the Rev. Dr. G. Turner of the 

 Samoan Medical Mission and by Dr. Mullen, R.N. of H. M. S. 

 " Cameleon," that its origin may have been connected with the 

 occurrence of numerous dipterous insects found in scrapings of the 

 skin after the use. of sulphur ointment. This last he showed to be 

 only an accidental feathre of the eruption. Two years afterwards. 

 Dr. Fox in connection with Dr. Farquhar wrote an account of 

 " Certain Endemic Skin and other Diseases in India and Hot Climates 

 generally " (London 1876), in which further reference was made to 

 this disease. It was there shown that Tokelau ringworm, Burmese 

 ringworm, Chinese ringworm, and the Indian ringworms known 

 familiarly as "dhobie itch," "washerman's itch," "Malabar itch," etc., 

 are all of them forms of Tinea circinata tropica variously modified 

 by such circumstances as the personal habits, the nature of the 



'- Delivered at Oxford on Feb. 15th, 1883: (" Xature " vol. xxviii., p. 9). Vide also 

 Topinard's " Elements d'Anthropologie generale ; " Paris 1885, p. 325. 

 - " Narrative of the U. S. Explor. Exped." : vol. v., p. 40. 



