Dermatologists are frequently called on by members of other specialties as well as by lay clientele for opinion, diagnosis and advice regarding lesions of the tongue. It is for this reason that this review of primary actinomycosis of the tongue, with reports of two more cases, is presented. Many authors had previously described or mentioned conditions in animals which we may presume to have been actinomycosis, but it was in 1877 that Bollinger 1 definitely established the organism named the ray fungus or Actinomyces as the cause of lumpy jaw of cattle. The following year, actinomycosis in man was found to be due to the same organism by Israel. 2 Judging by the number of cases of primary actinomycosis of the tongue, only fifty-five since the original report of von Hacker 3 in 1885, one would be inclined to view this entity as rare. However, since New and Figi, 4