COMMUNICABILITY 



2045 



by Whitfield, is when the fungi invade the skin between the toes 

 (tinea int er digit ah s). In this situation the fungus — it is generaUy 

 Ep. cruris — may remain for years, the fungus per se giving rise to 

 practicaHy no objective symptom, except perhaps a httle scahness, 

 but generally induces very severe pruritus, especially in the hot 

 weather. This localization of the fungus is often the starting-ppint 

 of secondary bacterial affections causing a most distressing der- 

 matitis, known to the planters by the name of 'mango toe,' and 

 already described on p. 2036. 



Communicability. — Tinea cruris is known in the East as dhobie 

 itch, from the popular belief that it is contracted from linen which 



Fig. 802. — Dhobie Itch of the Axillary Regions: Tinea Axillaris. 

 Case due to Epidermophyton cruris Castellani. 



has been contaminated while being washed by the dhobie (native 

 laundryman). As to how far this belief is correct we are not in a 

 position to say. We have never succeeded in finding the fungus 

 in clothes newly received from the dhobie, either microscopically 

 or by inoculating small portions of the linen in sugar media. We 

 are, however, inclined to think that the popular behef may to a cer- 

 tain extent be correct. We have been told by old sufferers from 

 dhobie itch, who used to be frequentty reinfected, that on their 

 ceasing to give their clothes to the dhobie, and having them washed 

 in the house instead, the disease did not again affect them. In 

 Colombo dhobies are in the habit of washing the clothes in a lake, 



