By way of introduction to subsequent reports, in this paper I purport to describe the laboratory observations in twelve cases of chronic paronychia, the type seen in housewives, domestic workers and dish washers. This particular subject has been little investigated, as can be judged by the scarcity of literature written both here and abroad. Shelmire,1 in his interesting report on "Thrush Infections of the Skin," described the observations of a thrush (?) organism in five cases. In 1909, Forbes,2 in England, reported the finding of thrush in the nails of a child aged 3½ years. This child had stomatitis, and the same organism was isolated from the mouth. In 1924, Braxton Hicks and Chopping3 reported the finding of Blastomyces in a woman. MacCormac's4 article in the October, 1927, issue of the British Journal of Dermatology and Syphilis reported the finding of Oidium albicans in two cases of