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TROPICAL TRICHOPHYTOSIS.
By ALDO CASTELLANI, M.D.,
Director of the Clinic for Tropical Diseases, Colombo, Ceylon.
(Friday, July l7th, 1908.)
Our knowledge of tropical dermatomycoses is far from being complete, and some confusion prevails in the description and classification of such affections even in quite modern standard works of dermatology. This is due to the scant opportunity there is of observing such diseases in temperate climates, and to the fact that as soon as patients move from a tropical into a cold climate the clinical features of these eruptions change greatly.
Having been interested in the subject during the last five years, I venture to give you the results of my investigation on the principal tropical dermatomycoses which I have had an opportunity to observe.
The dermatomycoses which can be classified under the heading of Tropical Trichophytosis are the following:—
- 1. Tinea cruris or "Dhobie itch."
- 2. T. albigena (Nieuwenhuis).
- 3. Tinea of Sabouraud.
- 4. T. imbricata (Manson).
- 5. T. intersecta (Castellani).
- 6. T. nigro-circinata (Castellani).
In addition to these afiections, which may be considered as "Tropical" in a strict sense, several other forms of trichophytic affections occur in the Tropics which clinically are identical with the trichophytic affections met with in temperate zones, viz., Tinea circinata, T. capitis,
