Eczema and its management : a practical treatise based on the study of two thousand five hundred cases of the disease / by L. Duncan Bulkley.

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

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eczema and its management : a practical treatise based on the study of two thousand five hundred cases of the disease / by L. Duncan Bulkley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    known as intertrigo, or better as eczema intertrigo. Scales or crusts are seldom seen here, but in places where the two surfaces of skin have been kept in close contact, we find a soft creamy or cheesy mass, composed of exfoliated epithelial cells and inflammatory exuda- tion, often mingled with some powder which has been applied to heal the part. These raw, red, and moist patches come, and often go, very quickly, and a part which is apparently healthy one day, will on the next day present this appearance; it is also astonishing how very rapidly the diseased portions will return again to the normal state under exactly proper treatment. These surfaces which seem so raw do not, as a rule, occasion much distress from itching, but sometimes the pain from them, especially when occurring about the groin and but- tocks, may be very severe. The surface is raw and be- reft of its natural epidermal covering, and the chafing of the clothing, or the irritation of cleansing may give much pain. Eczema of the hands and arms in infants, and also of the feet and legs occasions much distress to the patient from the itching, and these parts are very frequently se- verely torn in scratching. Sometimes the eruption in the bends of the knees and elbows, especially during the later years of this period, is so severe, and accompanied by so much infiltration of tissue, that the parts crack and movement becomes very painful; even to such a degree as to interfere with locomotion. The diagnosis of infantile eczema need not present great difficulties. There are but few conditions in chil- dren during this period, which can or should be con- founded with the eruption here described. Sometimes the large, flat papules of inherited syphilis simulate ecze- ma to a certain degree. But here the separate lesions can be made out with a little care, and the surface of the