On the nomenclature and classification of disease of the skin / by L. Duncan Bulkley.

  • Bulkley, Lucius Duncan, 1845-1928.
Date:
[1881]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nomenclature and classification of disease of the skin / by L. Duncan Bulkley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/18 (page 7)
    X. Ulcerationes. XI. Neuroses. XII. Parasitae. It will be seen here, however, that the pathological plan is not wholly followed, for certain groups, as the third, elev¬ enth, and twelfth are not thus based, but rest on another footing. The classification and revised nomenclature recently put forth by Auspitz contains so many and such radical inno¬ vations that it is difficult to be understood and appreciated even by those well versed in dermatology: how far its feat¬ ures will be accepted and adopted remains yet to be seen. It claims to have a natural basis, but can hardly claim to rival in simplicity and practical utility that here presented. From this it will be noted, therefore, that all plans of classification are and must be more or less imperfect, and to a greater or less degree artificial. Indeed, in the present state of dermatological science all of them cannot but be more or less incomplete, for, with increasing knowledge in regard to the nature of these diseases will come greater sim¬ plification and perfection in their nosology. The classifica¬ tion which one hundred years ago served to bring light out of darkness, and in a measure satisfied writers for many years, namely, that based on the coarse, lesional conditions of the disease, as first detailed by Plenck, is no longer sufficient for the present time. Nor can such plans as those proposed by Alibert, Hardy, or others, who group them upon the supposed causation, entirely suffice the requirements of to-day. The science of more modern times demands the surest possible foundation for classification as well as thera¬ peutics ; and that grouping of diseases which places those together which are in reality most closely allied, is the one which is surest to stand. The present classification is based, as will be seen, very largely upon that of Hebra, the main principles of which have stood the test of nearly forty years of hard work and active criticism, together with the flood of light thrown upon the subject by the microscope ; and it may be said that there are no real innovations here other than attempts at