Diseases of the skin : a handbook for students and practitioners.
- Walsh, David
- Date:
- 1913
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Diseases of the skin : a handbook for students and practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Gerstein Science Information Centre at the University of Toronto, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto.
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![significance as regards the line of treatment, which should be aimed at the circulatory cause rather than the cutaneous symptom. It is obvious that if the local supply to the skin be deficient in amount the normal defensive processes whereby the blood resists invasion must be correspondingly impaired. An everyday illustration of the effects of impeded circulation may be seen in the ec;2ema commonly associated with varicose veins. Another result of defective skin circulation is that patho- genic bacteria and irritant substances {e.g., toxins) carried to the surface may become lodged there, and, owing to the defective blood-stream, are not destroyed or flushed away. I have met with lupus in patients who suffered from heart disease, and it seemed to me possible—or probable—that the defective blood-stream might be responsible for the local development of the tuberculosis bacillus. A similar line of reasoning applies to the local deposition] of an irritant like iodine, which appears specially to affect hair follicles in which the local circulation is limited. In other words, an idio- syncrasy against iodine simply means a defective circula- tion that favours the local deposition of a powerful chemical irritant, and is unable to repair the effects of the traumatism thus brought about. Classification. In the present state of our knowledge of skin diseases it is impossible to draw up any satisfactory scheme of classification. Some authorities group the majority of skin maladies under the neuroses. Others inchne to the elementary lesion as a securer basis. Happily, as our scientific knowledge becomes more extended and accurate, we are able to find a definite causa causans for a greater number of cutaneous maladies. One main source of advance has been due to the discovery of specific pathogenic organisms. In some instances the inter- esting observation has been made that in certain tropical diseases, where no microbe has been discovered, the filtrate of the affected serum forced through a Pasteur porcelain filter has nevertheless been able to convey the original](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20995921_0029.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
