The essential point in the treatment of all the varieties of true ringworm is to apply to the roots of the hairs a preparation which will destroy the fungus; but before this can be done the hair must be removed, the disease has not already effected the removal sufficiently. This is best effected with small pincers abort 3 in. long, and con structed so that the two extremities, which should be a couple of lines broad, shall come together very exactly. Or, in place of using the forceps, an ointment, composed of limo and carbonate of soda, of each 1 part, and 30 parts of lard, may he applied, which will soon remove the hair, French dermatologists recommend the application of •` Thuile de cade." or "oil of pitch," obtained by the dry distillation of the wood of the juniperus aryeedrus, to the part from which the hairs are to be removed, believing that it lessens the sensibility, and tends to loosen the attachment of the hair. In order to destroy and remove the plant, lint dipped in a solution of sulphUrous acid should he continuously applied—sulphurous acid being probably the most energetic parashicide at present known. Among the so;utions that have been applied with the same object, may be
mentioned that of corrosive sublimate, 1 part to 250 of water. The genera( health must be at the same time attended to, and the internal use of cod-liver oil may usually be advantageously combined with the local applications.
Ringworm in the lower animals, as in the human subject, consists of the growth of a vegetable fungus on the surface of the skin, is common amoagat young animals, is decidedly contagious, and communicable from man to the lower animals, and probably, also, from the lower animals to man. Commencing witla a itchy spot, usually about the head or neck, or root of the tail, it soon spreads, producing numbers of scurfy circular bald patches. It is -unaccompanied by sever, and seldom interferes seriously with health. After washing with soap and water, rim over the spots lightly every day with a pencil of nitrate of silver, or rub iu a little of the red ointment of mercury, or some iodide of sulphur liniment.
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