7/15/10




Vegetable Parasite Disease, Tinea Favosa, or Favus, or the Honeycomb ringworm, a disease that is caused by the Achorion Scholeinii, begins with itching and redness of the skin, and with a furfuraceous desquamation of the cuticle. At the same time the hair loses its polish, and becomes more or less brittle.
Soon small, isolated dry yellowish crusts not larger than a pin's head make their appearance; these, as they extend at their circumference and increase in thickness, become depressed at their centre; very often a hair passes through the middle of the depression. These sulphur-yellow "favus cups" are pretty numerous, and are commonly surrounded by an areola of inflamed skin. Their size does not usually exceed that of a split pea.

The head of a person affected with Favus exhales a peculiar foetid odour, which has been variously likened to that of mice, of animal tissues undergoing maceration, or of the urine of cats.

- from A Manual Of The Diseases Of The Skin, Alexander Balmanno Squire, 1865.


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