Alopecia / by Edward Wigglesworth.

  • Wigglesworth, Edward, 1840-1896
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Alopecia / by Edward Wigglesworth. 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.

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    The treatment of seborrhoja slioukl be both local and gene- ral, and everything depends upon the manner in which the remedies are employed. There is no class of diseases, says Hebra, wherein, to such an extent as in skin diseases, the success or failure of the physician is solely due to the man- ner of employment of the remedies. With the same patient and the same remedies one physician will be nearly always successful, another will nearly always fail. Some minute- ness of description in regard to the proper method of em- ploying the remedies for Alopecia furfuracea is therefore, I trust, excusable. The crusts are to be softened with olive oil rubbed on every two or three hours with a small sponge or piece of flannel; at night, in addition, the oil should be poured on the head, if the crusts are thick, and the whole covered with a flannel night-cap. In twenty-four hours, the crusts will be softened. They should then be washed away thoroughly with soft soap and a flannel rag. Better still is Hebra's alkaline alcoholic soap, composed of two parts of German potash soap [sapo viridis], and one part alcohol, filtered after standing for twenty-four hours. A little spirits of lavender may be added to suit the taste. This is to be poiu'cd on flannel or on a bathing mitten, and the head tho- roughly washed, the cloth being dipped from time to time in luke-warm water so as to produce a foam, the soap other- wise hardening as the alcohol evaporates. After the scales and crusts are entirely removed, cold or luke-wami water should be allowed to run over the head until every trace of the soap is removed. For this purpose a cold douche is best. This whole washing is best performed in a hot or Bteam-bath. The oil applications should be daily repeated as long as crusts tend to form. The Avashing and the cold douche should be continued for Aveeks afterwards, preferably at bed-time. After washing, the hair should be well combed 4
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