SUMMARYThe infected fingers in chronic paronychia were mostly on the dominant hand. Little fingers were less and middle fingers more affected than expected. Oral Candida albicans carriage was significantly less when the first finger to be infected was the middle finger. The duration of the disease was related to the number of infected fingers, but not to oral C. albicans carriage. The second finger to be infected was an opposite* or adjacent finger more often than expected.The following conclusions are drawn: (i) The mouth and the bowel, but not the vagina, of the patient, or her family, are sources of C. albicans in chronic paronychia. (2) Mechanical trauma that destroys the cuticle is responsible for the invasion of C. albicans into the nail‐fold. (3) This trauma in our patients is mostly due to rubbing during hand‐washing of clot