SINCE 1944 the eastern portion of the United States has been afflicted with an epidemic of tinea capitis among children below the age of puberty. The pre-dominating organism cultured from infected patients has been the Microsporum audouini, and the large number of cases available in our clinic stimulated us to undertake a study of some of the characteristics of this fungus.
There are many features of the course of M. audouini infection of the hair which require explanation. In this series of experiments we have attempted to determine the chemical nature of the substance which produces a greenish fluorescence when exposed to the Wood light.
STUDIES ON FLUORESCENT MATERIAL IN MICROSPORUM AUDOUINI INFECTED HAIR
The nature of fluorescent substance contained in infected hair has occasioned great interest since the discovery of this phenomenon by Margarot and Deveze1 in 1925. The term fluorescence was first applied to chemical substances