Scheme for obtaining a better knowledge of the endemic skin diseases of India / prepared by Tilbury Fox and T. Farquhar.

  • Fox, Tilbury, 1836-1879.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Scheme for obtaining a better knowledge of the endemic skin diseases of India / prepared by Tilbury Fox and T. Farquhar. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    It is, however, satisfactory to be able to simplify matters by including Burmese ringworm under the term Tinea circinata. Il is only necessary to add that Indian medical officers will do great service if they will investigate the nature of Burmese and all other ringworms bearing *' topographical or popular names, with a view to discover if they be not one and all referrable to tinea circinata, their peculiarities or rather minor differences being accounted for by the influence of climate and the like. MALABAR ITCH. We know nothing of this disease in England, but are informed that its characters are those of Burmese ringworm. Information touching Malabar itch would be very acceptable, interesting, and valuable. N.B.—Microscopic observations, with sketches, of vegetable parasites found in ringworms are specially asked for, and preserved specimens mounted in glycerine or balsam, if possible. LICHEN TROPICUS, OR PRICKLY HEAT. The pathology of this disease is well worth the attention of Indian observers. The disease is regarded as a lichen, but every red pimple is called lichen. True lichen means a disease in which solid lymph papules are formed in the skin, and these undergo no further change when once produced, except absorption and resolution. True lichen is rare. In lichen tropicus, the skin is studded over with red papules, but these are vascular, and evidently formed at the sweat ducts. In some cases vesicles are interspersed with the red papules, showing that a certain amount of sweat has been produced and has collected in such a way as to uplift the cuticle and to give rise to sudamina. The cause of the disease, the heat, acts generally upon the surface, and the eruption is general. The itching is not primary, it is the consequence of the failure of tiie sweat function to relieve the skin, and of the retention of the sweat. The anatomical seat of lichen tropicus in our opinion is the sweat follicles. These are called upon to perform an excessive amount of work, congestion is the result, with failure of the sudoriferous function ; the surface is not properly cooled, the sweat products are retained, and morbidly stimulate the nerves of the skin, hence the pricking and burning, which is of course aggravated by everything that increases the cutaneous circulation, such as warm clothing and warm drinks. This matter is one worthy the att(3ntion of the Indian medical officer. Note.—The influence of malarious poisoning has been alluded to in speaking of several of the diseases referred to in the foregoing pages. This influence may be on the one hand merely one which leads to prostration of the patient and disturhed nutrition of a general kind, so that the individual is more susceptible to the attack of disease in general; or on the other hand the influence of malarial poisoning may be of a specific kind. The questions have been framed with a view to determine the exact influence of malaria (if any) in the production of the diseases under discussion. Doubtless other skin diseases that are considered peculiar to India find no place in this document. It will be a matter of much satisfaction if the circulation of this paper should be the means of eliciting information relative to such diseases, to the benefit of medical science generally and dermatology in particular. LONDON: Printed by Georgk E. Etre and William Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty. For ITer Majesty's Stationery Office. [P. 2028.—500.—1/72.] I