THE INCIDENCE OF RINGWORM OF THE FEET IN A UNIVERSITY GROUP

Abstract

An examination of the diagnoses made in the dermatologic clinic of a student health service discloses an incidence similar to figures arrived at in dispensary and private practice. The principal variation is due to the constancy of the age group seen—an average age of 19½ years. In a group of 390 new skin cases seen during the first six months of 1932 in the Student Health Service of the University of Pennsylvania, ringworm infections in general constituted by far the largest percentage. Such a diagnosis was made 145 times, or in 37 per cent. Of these cases, ringworm of the toes was seen in sixty-nine cases, or practically 50 per cent. This is of course no real index of the occurrence of ringworm of the toes, as this number represented only those cases troublesome enough to cause the affected person to seek treatment or severe enough to be referred for