Pigmentation of face and other parts, especially in women / by Francis Henry Champneys.
- Champneys, Francis Henry, Sir, 1848-1930.
- Date:
- [1879]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Pigmentation of face and other parts, especially in women / by Francis Henry Champneys. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
5/18 page 237
![Lecat mentions that great fear turns negroes pale (fait palir les Negres). Heusinger (p. 39, note 2) quotes from “ Annales de la Soc. de Med. Pratique de Montpellier,” tom. xx. p. 109 (which I have not been able to find), the case of a man, aged fort)^-five, who turned gray from fright, and in two years recovered the original colour of his hair (brown). Kostan relates the case of an old woman, aged seventy, who had always enjoyed good health. Her daughter had two chil- dren, which she left in charge of their grandmother. They were fonnd to be syphilitic. Their mother accused the grandmother of being the cause of this, and jumped out of the window with both her children. The next day the old woman found herself completely black, darkest on the face, palms of the hands, soles of the feet, folds of the groins and breasts. The anterior part of the legs was dotted with white patches. She eventually died of pneumonia. It is mentioned that she was covered with lice, but not when this commenced. Lecat mentions (p. 173) a case of pigmentation of the eyelid.s caused by fright, which extended to the face and arms, and eventually cured itself by desquamation. Desquamation of ])igmented skin in a case of Dr. Dyce Duckworth’s is related in Sir J. E. Corraack’s chemical studies. Emotion falling short of grief or terror may produce pigmen- tation. Alibert (p. 415) says, “ Une jeune dame, tr^s belle, d’une peau tres blanche, voyait se developper a la surface de ses deux seins, ainsi qu’a la region abdominale, des petites taches, circonscrites, isolees, du diametre d’une monnaie de dix sous, toutes les fois qu’elle eprouvoit la plus l%ere contrariete. Mais ces laches ne duroient que cinq on six heures.” In this case the face escaped, which is unusual. The small amount of annoyance required to produce the effect is remarkable. If pregnancy, menstruation, and emotion are each alone cap- able of producing pigmentary changes, it is not surprising that these changes should follow combinations of more than one of these causes. Eostan (p. 22) mentions a woman of feeble health, who was imprisoned in IParis during the first revolution for having spoken well of the king, and was condemned to death. The instrument of execution (la lanterne) was produced in her pre- sence suddenly. Her catamenia, which were present, ceased; and although her execution was suspended by the influence of an exalted jjersonage, she soon after became dark (comme des negres peu fences) all over, except some white patches on the legs (such as are seen in some of the American negroes), till her death, at the age of seventy-five, more than thirty years after the occurrence.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22342965_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
