Diseases of the skin / by J. Ferguson Smith.

  • Smith, J. Ferguson.
Date:
[between 1900 and 1920]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Diseases of the skin / by J. Ferguson Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    th© best applications, and. may contain salicylic acid, resorcin, sulphur, tars, and mercurials (8 and 9). On the scalp the hair should be cut close, and an ointment applied continuously, or at least well rubbed in night and morning. In milder cases lotions are more expedient, though much less efficacious (10 and 11). Chronic infiltrated patches may require X-rays. The acute seborrhoeic eczema is to be treated as an ordinary eczema at first, flavine starch poultices being very useful, and later anti-seborrhoeic ointments are to be used with caution, the strength being gradually increased. Give an Account of Pityriasis Rosea. This is an acute macular or maculo-vesicular disease, which is probably an exanthem. In the majority of cases there is a herald-spot, which appears anywhere on the trunk or upper portions of the limbs as a pink macule, which gradually en¬ larges. After one or two weeks a profuse eruption of similar macules covers the regions named, the face, except sometimes the chin, and rarely the temples, and the distal parts of the limbs escaping. As the spots enlarge they tend to*clear in the centre, the developed picture being a pink ring, round or oval, with the long axis in the line of the ribs, covered with a frill of fine scales, and enclosing a buff-coloured, wrinkled centrs. Itching is variable, being sometimes very severe, and sometimes absent. Scratching may lead to eczematisation. The duration untreated is from three weeks to three months and there is no tendency to recurrence. Its cause is probably a filter-passing virus. The fully-developed disease is un¬ mistakable, but seborrhoea or eczematisation may obscure the picture, and then the distribution and the history of a herald-spot ’’ may give the clue. In the early macular stage the condition is not very seldom mistaken for the macular secondary syphilide, but the distribution, the absence of general glandular enlargement, of mucous membrane lesions, of a primary sore, of general disturbance, and of a positive Wassermann reaction in cases of doubt, should prevent this rather serious error. The prognosis is good, and treatment is of doubtful value as regards shortening the duration, but where there is itching, calamine lotion wi]l soothe this and prevent eczematisation.
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