Page:Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, volume 1.djvu/318

 patients were men — generally men who moved about a good deal, and who consequently perspired. Dhobie itch was seldom seen in women and children. Possibly that might be because the ailment was regarded as insignificant, and was dealt with domestically. But a personal experience of repeated infections of this annoying trouble led one to the belief that it was not spread by dhobies. Although the familj^ linen was all washed together, skins that were presumably more tender, and, therefore, more susceptible, than that of the adult male were seldom or never affected. Dhobie itch was, indeed, very rarely seen in the nursery, and he could not agree that wives were frequently infected by their husbands. With regard to treatment, in the Tropics intertrigo around the scrotum was almost a normal condition ; and if these parts were vigorously treated with a strong parasiticide such as chrysophanic acid, the application would certainly cause trouble. Goa powder and its preparations ought to be used with caution; he had seen serious results follow care- less use, and absorption was sometimes attended by severe fever and other constitutional symptoms. Still, the fact remained that Goa powder was used as a cure for dhobie itch twenty times for once that other remedies were applied, and, if lightly rubbed in, in small quantities and with discrimination, it was safe. It was, indeed, the best remedy. The fungi of the various mycoses were difficult to grow upon the ordinary media; he had never completely succeeded with any of them. He wished the author had given more practical information on this point. No doubt the specific fungus grew, but there was always such a prolific growth of staphylococcus and other bacteria growing through it, that it could seldom be differentiated He always read with a certain amount of scepticism the descriptions of pure cultures of any microbic growth obtained from scrapings of skin in the Tropics.