234 



Dr. G. Thin. 



Paterson (James) Notes on the Lithology of Gas Coals. 8vo. War- 

 rington 1881. The Author. 



Reade (T. Mellard) Notes on the Southern Drift of England and 

 Wales. 8vo. Liverpool 1881. The Author. 



Siemens (C. W.), F.R.S. Science and Industry. 8vo. London 1881. 



The Author. 



Winn (J. M.) Materialism at the International Medical Congress. 

 8vo. London. The Author. 



A Photograph of Colonel Tennant, RE., F.RS. 



" On Trichophyton tonsurans (the Fungus of Ringworm)." 

 By George Thin, M.D. Communicated by Professor 

 Huxley, Sec. RS. Received February 19, 1881. Read 

 March 3. 



[Plate 2.] 



The disease of the scalp popularly known in England as ringworm 

 is described in medical works under the names herpes tonsurans and 

 tinea tonsurans. When it occurs on the skin of the body it is known 

 as tinea circinata and also as herpes tonsurans. The disease is 

 widely spread in the human subject, exists in all climates, and also 

 occurs in the horse, ox, and dog. It can be communicated from these 

 animals to each other and to man. 



It was shown almost simultaneously by Gruby,* in France, and by 

 Malmsten,f in Sweden, that the disease is due to the growth in the 

 hairs and in the horny layers of the epidermis of a fungus which was 

 named by Malmsten Trichophyton tonsurans. The statements of Mai Ha- 

 sten and KiichenmeisterJ that the parasite is found only amongst 

 the cells which have undergone the horny change, that is to say, in 

 the hair-shaft, between the hair- shaft and the internal root- sheath, 

 and in the horny layer of the epidermis, have been recently confirmed 

 by the evidence of sections made through the affected skin in the 

 horse § and in man. The parasite is not found amongst the living cells 

 of the epidermis. 



* " Comptes Pendus," &c, 1844, vol. xviii, p. 583. (Vide " Vegetaux Para- 

 sites." Par Ch. Pobin. Page 417.) 



f " Muller's Archiv," 1848. (Swedish original, Trichophyton tonsurans, Harska- 

 rande Mogel. Stockholm. 1845.) 



X Sydenham Society's translation. " On Animal and "Vegetable Parasites of the 

 Human Body," vol. ii, p. 141. 



§ Vide a paper by the author, " On the Condition of the Skin in tinea tonsu- 

 rans," in the 61st volume, and another by Dr. Frederick Taylor in the 62nd volume, 

 of the " Transactions of the Poyal Medical and Chirurgical Society." 



