TRICHOPHYTIN HYPERSENSITIVENESS DEMONSTRATED BY CONTACT TESTS

Abstract

There is no necessity for again emphasizing the frequent occurrence of tinea of the hands and feet. In the United States this infection seems to have become so widespread that a large percentage of the population may be said to be affected in one or more areas of the skin. It has been shown by authors who have studied this condition that the different types of lesions on the hands are very frequently free from typical fungi, while the organisms generally abound in the lesions on the feet, provided these have not been previously treated. This fact led Williams¹first to voice the idea that the hand lesions might be "ids," i. e., dermatophytids, resulting from the dissemination of fungi or their products from foci on the feet. Since this theory was propounded, several investigators added to its plausibility by the discovery of new facts pointing in this direction. The work of Walthard,²Jadassohn³and Peck,⁴for instance, showed the following facts: