The surgical diseases of the genito-urinary organs including syphilis / by E.L. Keyes ; a revision of Van Buren and Keyes's text-book upon the same subjects.

  • Keyes, E. L. (Edward Lawrence), 1843-1924.
Date:
1889, ©1888
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The surgical diseases of the genito-urinary organs including syphilis / by E.L. Keyes ; a revision of Van Buren and Keyes's text-book upon the same subjects. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    ALOPECIA. Falling of tlic liair due to syphilis is of two kinds. Wlicre there are scabby sores on the :?calp. and especially in later iilcerative disease, the hair-follicles over limited areas become destroyed, in which case the fallen hair is not reproduced. Ordinarily, however, general bald- ness occasioned by syphilis is only temporary. In fact, baldness is not usually produced, but only a considerable thinning of the hair gener- ally, or in mottled patches, not only of the scalp, but of the eyebrows, eyelids, whiskers, and, to a degree, of the whole body. Alopecia is sometimes complete over the entire body. More or less local alopecia is sometimes met with (on the fronto-temporal region) in cases of in- herited syphilis (Barlow,* Parrot f). In acquired syphilis the thinning of the hair is due to one of two causes (that is, when there is no eruption or ulceration involving the hair pai)ilUv) : (1) The syphilitic hydrremia, which, like thin-bloodedness from any other acute cause (fever), temporarily impairs the vitality of the hair- papilla?, causing the hair to lose its luster and then to fall out. (2) A seborrho^a, the sebaceous matter clogging the hair-follicle, pressing upon the papilla, ultimately leading to the fall of the hair, and possibly, in some cases, to the atrophy of the papilla. The dried sebaceous matter mixed with scales may usually be scraped away jolen- tifully from the scalp around the hairs. Treatment.—Although some falling off of the hair is often inevita- ble, yet the cpiantity may be lessened by attention to the hygiene of the scalp, shampooing once a week with ammonia or borax in warm water (a teaspoonful to the pint) to get rid of the accumulating seba- ceous matter, and the use afterward of a stimulating lotion, of which a little may be rubbed upon the scalp nightly. One of the best of these is : 5 Tr. capsici, 3 ij-v. Glvcerini, 3 j- Aqua) Colognicnsis, ad 3J. M. Where sores infest the scalp, general treatment alone is to be relied upon. INDOLENT GLANDULAR ENGORQEMEl^T. Coincidently with the first outbreak of general syphilis, sometimes preceding the eruption, more often shortly following it, there is a marked tendency to a general indolent engorgement of the lymphatic glands. This concomitant symptom rarely fails, and it furnishes a diagnostic mark of the first importance in all doubtful cases. The * Lancet, August 22, 1877. f Progr^s Medical, 1878, No. 22.