[The amazing treatment of ringworm in a Nantes hospital at the beginning of the 20th century]. / Le surprenant traitement de la teigne dans un hôpital nantais au début du XXème siècle.

In 1900, in Nantes, the ringworm was a real plague. Despite the very painful cares recovery could not be hoped before two years while the poor boys were roaming around far from school. At the Home St Jacques, a district for children suffering from ringworm and a department of electro-radiology were open where Doctor Gustave Bureau began to use X Rays to cure the ill hair and create a long lasting alopecia. The result was spectacular and patches disappeared in a few days. Besides three cases of radio dermatitis, there was no noticeable incident in spite of irradiation for twenty to twenty five minutes. The treatment has been used for about fifty years as it changed the life of the children till an effective drug. Then some studies showed the harmful long-term effects of such expositions to X rays.