[On the analogy of ringworm, and of some other skin diseases, to fairy rings].

  • Brown, Robert E.
Date:
[1847]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [On the analogy of ringworm, and of some other skin diseases, to fairy rings]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ON THE ANALOGY. OF RINGWORM, AND OF SOME OTHER SKIN DISEASES, TO FAIRY RINGS. By ROBERT E. BROWN, M. D., Edinburgh, (F, om the Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, No. 172.) It is well known that several of the diseases affecting the skin of man and of some of the lower animals invariably assume a torm more or less circular. This is particularly noticeable in tinea capitis, and in some varieties of lepra; and the term ring- worm, by which the first of these diseases is popularly known, is derived, in part, from this circumstance. I am not aware that any attempt has been made to explain this matter, or that it has been regarded in any other way than as an ultimate fact. The cause of it is not only a matter of some interest, but it might pos- sibly be of some practical importance in the treatment of these affections ; and I propose in the following communication to at* tempt to indicate an explanation of it, by endeavouring to draw an analogy between these diseases, and those appearances termed fairy rings, the cause of which appears to be well made out. It may, perhaps, seem to some as if this was a subject on which little required to be said. It may be thought that the circular form of these skin affections depends simply upon the fact, that the dis- ease originates in a point and has a tendency to spread ; and that it follows almost as a matter of course, or of the utmost proba- bility, that it will extend in a circular direction. There may be some plausibility in this: but still, Whence is this tendency to spread? and what is the nature and history of that process ? These are the questions on which it is more particularly the object of this communication to endeavour to throw light. Upon meadows and old pasture grounds, there not unfrequently