The conditions which modify the characters of inflammations of the skin, and their influence on treatment : being the Lettsonian lectures at the Medical Society of London, on February 16, March 2 and 16, 1903 / by H. Radcliffe-Crocker.

  • Crocker, H. Radcliffe (Henry Radcliffe), 1845-1909
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The conditions which modify the characters of inflammations of the skin, and their influence on treatment : being the Lettsonian lectures at the Medical Society of London, on February 16, March 2 and 16, 1903 / by H. Radcliffe-Crocker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The eruption illustrated by the following case was a form of miliaria exactly like the red gum on infants. The patient, a railway porter, had suffered from it for several years, whenever he got over- heated, as he necessarily often did at his work; arsenic controlled and partially cured it after it had been taken for a long period, but I scarcely expect that after so many years it will lie completely cured. Another recurring sweat eruption in the form of small vesicles along the sides of the fingers, from which so many people suffer in the summer, is definitely relieved by arsenic. So also is chronic urticaria not dependent on digestive disturbances, but in this the dose should be small and long continued. Pemphigus and dermatitis herpetiformis are generally controlled and sometimes cured by arsenic. But I am far from regarding it a specific for pemphigus as Mr. Hutchinson does, as it often fails conspicuously even to have a controlling effect. In all these the action is through the nervous system, chiefly the vaso-motor, either peripheral or central. Its preventive influence over bromide or iodide eruptions has already been mentioned. While the above pretty well covers the ground in which it is beneficial or curative, its frequent indiscriminate use renders it more important to point out where it is useless or injurious. As an internal remedy for eczema in any stage I have very little faith in it except in chronic scaly patches, which can, however, be more efficiently dealt with by suitable local treatment, while in the acute and subacute discharging eczemas it is quite useless in my opinion. Xo doubt if it is given in every case with good local applications a fair number of cases will get well, but so most of them would if burnt sugar and water were given with the same local treatment, but in none of the obstinately recurring cases, without any apparent cause for the exacerbation, which often baffle us for a long time, has arsenic ever helped me in a single' case that I can recollect, and I now scarcely ever give it in eczema, either acute or chronic. It should never be given where there is already gastric irritation, as in acne rosacea, urticaria from dyspepsia, &c. It should not be given in the evoluting stage of psoriasis, and, as a rule, not when there is great hypersemia, as it often aggravates the pruritus and congestion: indeed, with the exception of bullous eruptions, it is seldom advan- tageous in acute inflammations of the skin and often acts injuriously. A few words as to its administration. It may, as you know, be gn en as a liquid, a solid in pills, or by injections. Injections are