On bacterium decalvans: an organism associated with the de­struction of the hair in alopecia areata

Abstract

Although Gruby,* in the year 1843, announced that the affection of the hairy scalp known as alopecia areata (area celsi) is caused by a fungus, the parasitic theory of the disease has met with comparatively little support. If the patients on whom Gruby made his observations really suffered from this disease and not from ringworm, which in some of its forms is apt to be mistaken for it, this uncertainty is very remarkable.