A theoretical and practical treatise on the diseases of the skin / by P. Rayer.
- Pierre François Olive Rayer
- Date:
- 1845
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A theoretical and practical treatise on the diseases of the skin / by P. Rayer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![. pruna et ignipenico); bis description de ■ applicable to pemphigus and rupia, and ilia! ; his safati corresponds with our impetiginous ■ ad and other regions of the body, and his bothor hrris to 1 \\iccnna appears farther to have distinguished between scabies and prurigo.- Avenzoar speaks of the acarus seal/it /.'' The Arabian physicians, greal advocates for blood-letting, have enriched the .Materia Medica with a variety of new medicines, and advanced therapeutics by their novel applications of many of se that were already known. They studied the action of baths, icularby of the sulphureous mineral waters, in diseases of the skin. The writers who come next in order after the Arabian physicians, have left us ample details with regard to the two most remarkable epidemics, that have ever occurred whether the extent of their ravages or the length of time during which they continued be considered. l'lieodoricus4 and Gilbertus Anglicus5 were the first who described the lepra of the middle ages; Torella,6 Manardus,7 Massa,8 Fracas- ;iid many others, make us acquainted with the various forms of syphilis. On occasion of these two memorable epidemics, and with a view the better to fix their characters, Aquilanus,10 Leoniceus,11 and some other writers quoted in the Aphrodisiacus of Luisinus, such as Mon- tesaurus, Scanaroli and Cataneo, gave more attention than had yet been done to a comparative study of the descriptions of lepra, ele- phantiasis, alphos and leuce, left by the Greek writers, and of elephan- tiasis and several other diseases of the skin, handed down by the Arabians. These authors remind us of the fact that the translators of Rhazes and Avicenna make use of the word lepra to designate the disease entitled elephantiasis by the Greeks; that the lepra of the Greeks was a squamous disease, and that the elephantiasis of the Arabians is distinct from both the lepra and elephantiasis of the Greeks. One of the most celebrated surgeons of the period when letters and the sciences began to revive, Guido de Gauliaco or Guy de Chauliac,1* distinguished five species of tinea, which correspond exactly with impetigo, eczema, sycosis and favus of the scalp; he characterizes anthracion perfectly, and is the first who speaks of the contagion of scabies. Vidus Vidius or Guido mentions the vesicular varicella or chicken pox. Fracastorius, in his treatise de morbis contagiosis ,u endeavours to determine which of the diseases of the skin were contagious, and which were not ; he has also distinguished very accurately between anthrax, plnjma and proper carbuncle [anthracion?]. Fernelius describes lentigo, and the redness of the skin, the pustules and indurations or tubercles of rosacea; he also gives a particular account of sundry forms of syphilitic eruption ; he indicates purpura, or at least spontaneous ecchymosis of the skin; he unites into a single group impetigo, the whole of the papular and squamous eruptions, and describes eczema of the scalp under the name of tinea. Forestus,16 a learned observer, has published a number of particular 1 Spanruniur super nasum el super poma maxillarum bothor (pustulse) albae.quasi ipsa sint puncta laciis. 2 Et scabies quidem differt a pruritu in hoc quod cum pruritu non sunt bothor (.pnstulae) sicut sunt in scabia; et pruritus quidern senilis parum obedit curationi. 3 Avenzoar. De rectincatione et faciliatione medicationis et regiminis. Venetiis, fbl. 1649. * Theodorici Ohirurgia secundum medicationemHugonis de lue venerea,1519, folio. 5 Gilbertus. Laurea anglicana seu compendium totius medicinae. Lugdon, 4to. 1510. « Torellae De pudendagra tractatus. Consilia qutedam, etc. Aphrodisiacus, p. 491, U.l. Lngdoni llatavorum, 1728. I Manardi Medicidales epistolae, etc. Ferrarse, 4to. 1521. ' Ma^sa. De morbo gallico. Aphrodisiacus, p. 39. • Fracastorius. Syphilis, sive de morbo gallico Libri tres. Veronae, 1535, 4to. \quilanus (Sebastianus). De morbo gallico. Aphrodisiacus, p. 1. II I.eoniccni. De epidemia quam Iiali morbum gallicum vocant.—Aphrodisiacus, p. 17. I iy de Chauliac. Chirurgine tractatus, folio, 1570. 13 Vidus Vulius. Ars univers. medicine, 1. ii. cap. vi. De variolis el morbilis. H Fracastor. De morbis contagiosis. lib. ii. cap. xv.; de distinctione infectionum cutanea™ m.—Ibid. Phvma verd furunculo simile pene est; sed planius est.et rotun- dius, valgus impropne Carbonem vocat, multum differens ab eo,qui proprie Carbun- lieitur. 1 Kernelii I'niversa medicina, fol. Colonise Allobrogum, 1679. -ervationum et curat, medic, etc.—De exterioribus vitiis capitis, de maculis faciei, de pruritu ani, de phlyctsnis. cases, among which there occurs one of pemphigus infantilis, one oi COntagioUS scabies, which he distinguishes from B variety oi other diseases, all alike designated in his time by the title of scabies, one of psoriasis palmaris, one of lepra vulgaris, tVc. These cases are accompanied with scholia, in which Forestus examines and discusses the observations of preceding writers relative to cases of a corre- sponding description. Schenkius,17 a laborious and erudite compiler, has brought together a great number of cases of alterations of the hair, of congenital and accidental homy productions, of diseases of the hairy scalp, of sycosis or mentagra, of lichen, &c. Sennertus18 describes many of the changes in colour which the skin undergoes, particularly those which are entitled liver-spots (chloasma); as also fetid ephidroses of the feet, axilla? and body at large. He gives a detailed account of the diseases of the hair-follicles and of plica, after Starnigel and other observers. Ballonius or Baillou19 revives and comments upon the Hippocratic doctrine of the diseases of the skin, considered now as existing per seipsis, now as drtbtrrosHs or depositaries or emunctories, and again as vitia loci. The essays of Joubertus20 and Compolongo21 scarcely deserve to be mentioned. Mercuriali22 introduced into his descriptions the observations of the writers who preceded him. Like Galen, he divided the special dis- eases of the skin into two sections : as they -were peculiar to the head, or as they were liable to appear on all parts of the body. The latter he subdivided into two special groups: as they altered, first, the colour of the skin (leuce, alphos, &c.); secondly, as they rendered its surface rough and uneven (impetigo or lichen, pruritus, scabies, or psora, lepra,) to which he added a variety of tumours, without, however, condescending on the description of any. Under the name of tinea he gives the characteristic symptoms of favus (tinea favosa; porrigo lupinosa Willan) with great clearness,—its bright yellow and dry crusts, its transmission by contagion, and its influence in causing the loss of the hair. He detaches completely and with justice, the disease from achores and favi, [impetiginous eczema, and impetigo?] the influence of which upon the constitution and anterior diseases, he carefully notes. Joannes Riolanus,23 after alluding to this division of Mercuriali, proposes another of his own, based upon the appearances presented by the diseases of the skin, without regard to their seat. The dis- eases of the skin, says he, maybe divided, first, into pustules (prurigo, scabies, psora, lepra, impetigo, psydracia, ambustio ;) secondly, into deformities (macular, morbid discolorations, loss of the hair, phthiria- sis;) thirdly, into tubercles (warts, excrescences, condylomata.) Hafenreffer24 describes the diseases of the skin very briefly, and often after the ancient or cotemporary authors, without appearing to have been guided by any general views in their distribution. He includes variola, rubeola, the venereal eruptions, and the primary symptoms of syphilis in the study of the diseases of the skin. There is, in fact, nothing remarkable in his work, especially in comparison with that of Mercuriali, beyond his description of the syphilides or syphilitic eruptions, of dysenteric variola?, and his history of the pediculi of the human body, of which he reckons four species, one of which evidently corresponds to the acarus scabiei. He farther attempts to construct a table of synonyms, in which the Greek, Latin, Arabian, and German names of the diseases of the skin are included ; but, he has here com- mitted a considerable number of errors, and has frequently assimilated Schenkii Observat. medic, rariror., libri vii. fol. Lngduni 1694 ParSS ^L™*'' L ^ V' *™ lert'a' De CUl'S' caPillolu,n et unguium vitiis. » Ballonii (Gail.) Opera omnia. Epidem. et Ephemer, lib. i. t. i. p 49 4to. Oenevae, 1762. r ' *> Joubertus (Laurent). De affectibus pilorum et cutis, 12mo. Geneva; 1572 *' Compolongo (Emil.). De morbis cutaneis, lib. iv. tract, iii. Parisiis 1634 ' Accardius (Paulus) Tractationem de morbis cutaneis et omnibus hnmani cor pons excrements ex ore Hieronymi Mercurialis excepit et in quinque libros di»M«it acedidit. Venetns, 1572, 4to. Basil, 1756, 8vo. Venetiis, 1601, folio. Ibid IBM 4to. See also the book of Merculiari: De decoratione, in which he treats of the ilV eases of the nails, and of several other affections of the skin. ^Riolani (Joanuis) Opera Omnia. De morbis cutaneis, p. 547, fol. 1610. 2< Hafenreffer (Samuel). n**ioyh<» i.u\itt<n» in quo cutis eique adher-rentum nini„m affectus etc., traduntur. 12mo. Tubing*, 1630.— Ulmi, 1660, Svo. Ionium](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21149495_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
