2078 



TROPICAL DERMAtOMYCOSES 



peculiar parchment-like feeling of scleroderma. The microscopical 

 examination will clear the diagnosis in any doubtful case. 



In Europeans, tinea fiava, taking often a reddish colour (hence the 

 term ' tinea rosea especially if the patient has been exerting him- 

 self and is perspiring, might, on superficial examination, be mis- 

 taken for a form of Seborrhcea corporis. The microscopical examina- 

 tion will clear the diagnosis, no Malassezia fungus being found in 

 seborrhcea corporis. 



Treatment. — Tinea flava shows no tendency to spontaneous cure 

 unless the patient moves to a cold climate. Even then, very often 

 the cure is only apparent, as the condition reappears during the 

 hot weather. The treatment is difficult. Turpentine applied daily, 

 followed by a naphthol or epicarin ointment (2 to 5 per cent.), or 

 a salicylic -resorcin ointment (resorcin 3i., acidi salicyli gr. x., 

 vasehni §i.), is often successful, but the treatment must be con- 

 tinued for months. On covered parts of the body tincture of iodine 

 may be used, or a chrysarobin ointment (2 per cent.). 



It is to be noted that in several cases the fungus of tinea flava has apparently 

 a deep permanent disturbing action on the pigmentation processes of the 

 skin, as, even when the fungus has been destroyed, the patches may remain 

 of a lighter colour than the surrounding skin for a long time, though ultimately 

 they become again normally pigmented. 



TINEA NIGRA. 



Synonyms. — Pityriasis Nigra (Castellani), Microsporosis Nigra 

 (Castellani) . 



This affection is fairly common in India, Ceylon, Java, Federated 

 Malay States, and China. The first account of this, or a very 

 similar, dermatomycosis was published by Manson in China in 

 1872. Hanson's observations, however, were forgotten, as they were 

 not quoted by him in his subsequent works. Castellani, in 1905, 

 redescribed the disease in Ceylon, and succeeded in growing the 

 fungus. j 



Etiology. — The affection is caused by a fungus of the genus 

 Cladosporium — C. mansoni Castellani, 1905. The fungus is found 

 very abundantly in the lesions; the mycelial elements are rather 

 short — 18 to 20 jLt in length, and 2I to 3J jbt in breadth. Sometimes 

 they may be irregular in outline, bent, banana-shaped. The spores 

 are globular, and most of them very large — 5 to 8 jn. They are 

 frequently arranged in clusters. 



The fungus is easily cultivated by inoculating scrapings of the affected 

 patches on maltose agar. After two to four days roundish hemispheric colonies 

 appear, which are black, but at first have usually a greenish tinge, and may 

 present at the periphery some radiating, delicate, pale greenish hyphae. 

 These colonies may remain separate or more often gradually coalesce into a 

 jet-black knobby mass, deeply rooted into the medium. 



The fungus grows well, though less abundantly, on the other sugar agars, 

 and also on ordinary agar. In broth and peptone-water the growth is very 



