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.
7/18 page 239
![—I slmll just refer to Uie ])resence of pigment not only in the eye but in the olfactory region of the nose, and in relation with the ultimate acoustic elements of the internal ear, together with the fact mentioned by Darwin, that white cats are deaf, as a further indication of the close connection between the nervous and the pigmentary systems. I have thought it better to reserve the cases from my own notebook thus far, rather than to distribute them under their proper departments. Case I.—(Dark blonde.) Scanty and irregular menstruation with headache; pigmentation of hands and face, increasing at ])eriods; palpitation of heart. M. A., dark blonde, with gray eyes, aged forty-two, married twenty-one years, six children, the last six years old. Catamenia always scanty, and for the last eight years very irregular, at in- tervals of three to ten months. When about thirty years old she noticed that the backs of the hands and the face became brown at each period, the pigmentation beginning a few days before the flow, lasting two or three days after the flow, generally darkest in the middle of the period, sometimes just at its cessation. Has always been subject to headaches, especially at the monthly period; when she has headache at this time the pigmentation is darker than usual. Never becomes pigmented except at a period which may only occur once in three to ten months. No family history of pigmentation. Subject to palpitation; heart natural. Uterine organs healthy and not tender; no cause for dysmenor- rhcea discovered. In this case we have several possible exciting causes—first, we have to deal with a nervous woman, who (secondly) is subject to headaches, and (thirdly) to irregular and scanty menstruation. That the pigmentation depended chiefly on the disorder of men- struation is shown by the fact that headaches alone did not produce pigmentation, though they increased it when they coin- cided with the monthly period; and this is emphasised by the fact that the pigmentation only occurred at the periods which might be three to ten months apart. Case II.—(Dark blonde.) Irregular and scanty menstrua- tion ; sterility; pigmentation, especially of face, axillm, flexor surfaces of elbows and knees (but all the skin dark), increasing at periods; dyspej)tic symptoms. A. P., aged thirty, dark blonde, gray eyes; married twelve years; never pregnant. Catamenia irregular, at four to eight week.s’interval; scanty; no pain. Always very nervous; subject to palpitation (heart natural) ; not subject to headaches.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22342965_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
