Diseases of the skin : their description, pathology, diagnosis, and treatment / by H. Radcliffe Crocker.

  • Henry Radcliffe Crocker
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of the skin : their description, pathology, diagnosis, and treatment / by H. Radcliffe Crocker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    693/786 (page 657)
    very difficult to cure on the scalp, where the problem is how to get the parasiticide deep enough to reach the fungus, which often grows down to the very bottom of the follicle. Tinea circinata is generally curable in a week or two by almost any of the recognized parasiticides. The scales should be removed (unless the eruption is on the face) by means of soft soap and a piece of wet flannel, and the patch, if in a covered part, painted with tincture of iodine, or acetic acid, or sulphurous acid ; or hypo- sulphite of soda jjij to 3j of water may be applied on lint covered with oiled silk; or one of the following ointments may be rubbed in three times a day :—sulph. sublim. $ss, acid carbolic nixx, lanolin gvj, oil olivae 31] ; cupri. oleatis gss, lanolin c oleo 5j; hyd. ox. flaw gj, lanolin coleo 5j- In an infant, very weak preparations are sufficient, such as ung. hyd. nit. dil., or hyd. ammon. gss, to 5j of lanolin or lard. On the other hand, in so-called eczema marginatum, especially when contracted in tropical climates, very powerful and penetrat- ing parasiticides are required in some cases, though there is no harm in trying milder preparations at first. After thorough wash- ing with soft soap, the hyposulphite of soda lotion is often sufficient, well brushed in and afterwards applied under oiled silk; this was a favourite remedy with Tilbury Fox. In tropical and more obstinate cases, Goa powder, or its active principle chrysarobin, is one of the most actively effectual remedies; it may be used as an ointment—chrysarobin 3SS, lanolin ; or a piece of flannel moist- ened with strong acetic acid may be dipped into Goa powder and well rubbed on; or half a lemon dipped in the powder and used in the same way. The disagreeable effects detailed while describing the use of this drug in psoriasis may ensue, and patients should be warned of this possibility, and the remedy should not be resorted to therefore, until milder measures have failed, such as oleate of mercury,, oleate of copper, and many other remedies mentioned in the treatment of scalp ringworm; but in all cases, a perfect cure should not be hastily inferred from the absence of diseased appear- ances, as some living spores may remain in the epidermis ready to spring into activity as soon as parasiticide remedies have been discontinued, or when the weather or climate is warmer, to the disappointment of both patient and doctor; every case therefore ought to be carefully watched for some time, and the slightest return immediately and vigorously treated. 42