A microscopical inquiry into the vegetable parasites infesting the human skin / by Jabez Hogg.

  • Hogg, Jabez, 1817-1899.
Date:
[1859]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A microscopical inquiry into the vegetable parasites infesting the human skin / by Jabez Hogg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    %. A Microscopical Inquiry into the Vegetablej*^1™^ ttfertiW Me Human Skin. By Jabez Hogg, M.R.C.b.1,., &c. • (Read Jan. 26th, 1859.) An investigation into the many peculiarities which sur- round parasitic growths, and their rapid development and Lcrease, is one that may be expected to repay the micro- scopist for any amount of time he may bestow upon them, and we find, indeed, as much to interest and instruct us m this the lowest department of vegetable life, as, in that ot the highest. The microscope shows us that all the lungi have seed-vessels bearing fruit a hundred or a thousand fold and that there is scarcely a spot of earth on which this fruit m the shape of minute spores cannot be found Insoluble m nature, they wait, where they fall, the growth and decay of the particular plant for which each has its affinity ; so that the enemy is near to the very soil from which it is to draw life These spores, so imponderable, float about m the air we breathe, seeking a nidus in everything, be it vegetable or animal In the latter, whenever the healthy processes ot nutrition are impaired, and the incessant changes between the solids and the fluids slacken, the human skm then fur- nishes a rich and proper soil for these spores to take root m and germinate. I have lately been engaged m a micro- scopical examination of the products of the cutaneous surtace, for the purpose of ascertaining what share the parasitic growths take in the production of certain well-known forms of skin disease, and to decide, if possible, whether they are directly and solely the cause of disease and disorganization of the epidermal structures; or whether, from a decline of the general health, or some constitutional predisposition, the parasitic vegetation is the result of disease ? For the elucidation of my subject, I have made in all up- wards of eighty examinations of the products of skm dis- eases, taken from patients under my friend Mr. Hunt's care at the Western Dispensary for Diseases of the Skm. The products have been examined wet and dry, with reflected and transmitted light, under a power of from 200 to 400 diameters, and every means taken to avoid error. The spe- cimens have been obtained in scaly and papulous diseases by gently removing the half-detached scales; in moist eruptions, by simply placing the discharge on a slip of glass ; in diseases of the hairy scalp and beard, by uprooting the hairs and ex- amining them immediately. The sketches were made at the same time simply with a view to a faithful portraiture of what