Football impetigo : an enquiry into a contagious affection of the skin occurring amongst football players : a paper read before the Association on 10th December, 1895 / by H.G. Armstrong.

  • Armstrong, Henry George.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Football impetigo : an enquiry into a contagious affection of the skin occurring amongst football players : a paper read before the Association on 10th December, 1895 / by H.G. Armstrong. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    6/12 (page 6)
    Tlie soil of the football held has, In' some, been held to he the,/ha.s vt oriffo mali. This, however, the returns show to I)e untenable, as the schools where it has been i)revaient are situated on every variety of soil. At llaileyhury, at one time, it was supposed that “ a muddy, smelling held'’ was the cause; but, although the held was abandoned, the complaint reappeared in successive years. The dye of the jerseys also has been alleged as a source. The fact that the epidemics occur generally towards the end of the term, when the jerseys are old, and not at the beginning, when they are new, is against this theory. Through the kindness of ^fr. Hollins, of Maiisheld, who had football-playing sous at both llaileyhury and Wellington, a complete investigation of the manufacture of the jerseys and the dye has been made, and the latter after chemical examination has been declared “ noii-poisonous.” An insuthciency of vegetable diet has also been suggested as having a causal relation ; hut, though this may be possible, I consider it to be doubtful. At most schools there is now, I think, a good deal of attention to this in the ordinary food, and the ho\s supplement this very largely by the purchase of oranges and other fruits. Distribution.—The returns show that schools both in Scotland and Kngland, from h^dinburgh to Devonshire, are attacked. i^We have no nieinhers in Ireland, and consecpiently no returns.) -Vs 1 have already said, it is, with slight exceptions, only found amongst those who play the Hugby game, and of these, almost entirely amongst the forwards. The players outside the “scrum” are mostly e.xemi>t, though I have occasionally seen half-backs and three-quarters affected. The “big side” players are much more affecte«l than the smaller hoys, probably because they play a harder game, with a tighter scrum, and ]>ut their heads down more, 'riiough the older hoys are the i)rincipai victims, it is found that it occurs very little, or not at all, at the universities or the military colleges. Age seems to some extent to have a lu'otecting inlluence. .Vs an illustration of this, in the report from (’heltenham, Mr. Arthur C’ardew reports that