On the study of the hand for indications of local and general disease / by Edward Blake.

  • Blake, Edward T. (Edward Thomas), 1842-1905
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the study of the hand for indications of local and general disease / by Edward Blake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    By careful study of the hand, a fair hit can often be made as to inveterate habits. Thus if, with marked tremor of the hands, we notice that the forefinger and the thumb, especially of the left hand, be stained yellow, we may think of immoderate cigarette-smoking; ulcers at the base of the nails, with ecchymotic spots on the adjacent skin, might suggest the chloral habit. Those who habitually handle irritating drugs, like elaterium, also get sores at the nail insertion; whilst such widely differing causes as the use of arsenic as a cosmetic, and certain forms of athleticism, such as tennis, will lead to thickening of the skin of the palm. A white hand may mean good birth and idle habits; whilst an exceptionally white hand may show that, amongst other things, either the arteries are small in calibre or flaccid as to coat. Such a state of things may mean, too, that pigment is deposited in small quantities, or else that the arterial blood-supply is poor in quality or deficient in quantity. This would bring before our minds the possi- bilities of anaemia, of carcinoma, of toxis by tea, tobacco, or sewer gas, or else by some inorganic poison as lead, arsenic or mercury. A smooth, thin, satin-like texture of the cutis, indicating atrophy—a condition usually associated with Asteatosis, or lack of oil in the skin—betokens a result of neuritis, of nerve injury, or else of vaso-motor disturb- ance, unless the patient be in advanced life, when a dry skin is normal. The condition described by Langdon Down as the woolly hand of a certain type of imbecility, in which the skin is loose, harsh and thickened, is allied to or identical with the state of things in cretinism or infantile myxcedema. Dr. Shuttleworth tells the writer that of the several types of imbecility, such as the cretinoid, the Mongol, the nervous and the paralytic, each has its own peculiar and distinctive kind of hand. He adds this interesting note:— In everyday work of diagnosing feeble-minded children b 2
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