REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE This study was undertaken with the purpose of (a) determining the usual fungi that appear in cultures from normal skins for comparison with those which appear in cultures from lesions, (b) determining whether fungi pathogenic to the skin occur on skin without causing lesions and with what frequency and (c) determining the bacterial flora of the same skins and the possible bearing of the presence or absence of certain bacteria on the factors mentioned. Several investigators have carried out experiments to determine the fungous flora of apparently normal skins. Williams1 obtained Trichophyton lacticolor and Epidermophyton cruris from two of the thirty-six normal skins he examined. Cornbleet,2 after eliminating subjects who reported that they had had previous fungous infections, was able to culture from one hundred apparently normal toes three "possibly pathogenic" fungi, the organisms being Epidermophyton inguinale in two