Observations on the various forms of superficial dermatitis : particularly erythema, eczema, psoriasis, lichen, and pityriasis rubra with cases / by P.H. Pye-Smith.

  • Pye-Smith, Philip Henry, 1840-1914.
Date:
[1881?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the various forms of superficial dermatitis : particularly erythema, eczema, psoriasis, lichen, and pityriasis rubra with cases / by P.H. Pye-Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of Superficial Dermatitis. group of superficial iuflammations of tlie skin, we have no difficulty in separating from the rest so well-marked and peculiar a disease as Zona, the inflammations due to Syphilis, the usually slight inflammations caused by the presence of a parasitic fungus, and the special effects due to vermin, Scabies and Prurigo pedicularis. The remainder, regarded clinically as well as physiologically, appear to fall into the following large divisions : 1. Symptomatic Eruptions, including the Exanthemata and Syphilodermia. These scarcely need treatment as eruptions, but are of value for recognition of the disease of which they are parts. 2. Allied to these as not being traumatic are tbe Erythema- tous rashes, which also agree with most of the first class (as measles, scarlatina, enterica) in their anatomical characters, but differ by being not certainly associated with any other morbid conditions. They resemble each other in their slight degree of severity, their fugitive course, their wide and capricious distribution, and their greater frequency among the young. 3. Common superficial dermatitis, i.e. such as can be pro- duced in the great majority of skins by an appropriate irritant. Usually traumatic in origin, but probably always combined with a certain vulnerability which responds readily to irritants, which keeps up the dermatitis when the exciting cause has passed, and which sometimes seems sufficient alone to pro- duce a spontaneous or idiopathic dermatitis. This group includes all varieties of Eczema. 4. A group of which Psoriasis is the type and almost the sole representative, peculiar in histology and in form, incapable of being produced by any known irritant, slow in progress, apt to recur, definite in distribution, unconnected with internal as with external causes, and with its inflammatory character but slightly marked. 5. Lastly, there are the rare, but most interesting, cases of superficial dermatitis, which are universal, which differ from other diseases in their form, which are often accompanied with pyrexia, albuminuria, and other signs of general disturbance, and which not unfrequently end fatally.1 1 Of pemphigus, the most important of the idiopathic superficial inflammations