The ready reference handbook of diseases of the skin / By George Thomas Jackson, ... With 99 illustrations and 4 plates.

Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The ready reference handbook of diseases of the skin / By George Thomas Jackson, ... With 99 illustrations and 4 plates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    90/678 page 96
    with more or less abundant scaling. Both these condi- tions are now regarded as different forms of eczema sebor- rhoicum. Alopecia pityrodes has two stages : The first one lasts from two to seven years or more, and is attended by a greater or less amount of dandruff' and by dryness of the hair. Then comes tlie second stage, when the hair falls more or less rapidly. Its course may be the same as that of tlie two ])reviously described forms of baldness, thougli more commonly the whole top of tlie head is affected at once, the liair becoming progressively thinner in diameter and less in amount until lialdness results. As the baldness increases tlie dandruff lessens. The disease is one of early life in a large number of cases, often occurring between the twentieth and thirtieth year, and affects both sexes. Etiology. The cause of the hair fall is the dandruff. By this it is not meant that everyone who has dandruff will become bald. Everyone’s experience is against that. But it is true that in certain persons when, on account of some error in the nutrition of the sebaceous glands, they become diseased, the hair follicles sympathize with them and after a time the hair production ceases. Of late the opinion is gaining ground that alopecia pityrodes is eon- tagious, and the experiments of Lassar and Bishop' would seem to prove this. They succeeded in producing typical alopecia pityrodes in guinea pigs by rubbing into their backs a pomade composed of the scales taken from the head of a student who was afflicted with the same disease. A number of observers have reported from time to time the finding of a parasite in this disease, but as yet no one micro-organism can be demonstrated as positively at the bottom of the trouble. Sabouraud ^ believes that the same parasite that produces the seborrhcea produces the loss of hair. It is according to him a micro-bacillus that grows down into the hair follicle between its wall and the hair and causes atrophy of the hair papilla. Treatment. The treatment of this form of baldness must be addressed to the cure of the seborrhoea or ])ityria- * Monatsliefte f. prakt. Dermat., 1882, i., 131. ^ Ann. clc derm, et de syph., 1807, viii., 257.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3