Volume 2

The student's book of cutaneous medicine and diseases of the skin / by Erasmus Wilson.

  • Wilson, Erasmus, Sir, 1809-1884.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The student's book of cutaneous medicine and diseases of the skin / by Erasmus Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sometimes observed during the dispersion of the eruption. The disorder never begins in a gyrated form. Alphos capitis.—Alphos is not unfrequently met with on the hairy scalp, and covers the head more or less exten- sively, showing a red margin along the forehead and temples. It commonly presents the diffused form; the scalp is thickened, very itchy, and throws off an abundance of white scales. Alphos capitis rarely exists independently of the presence of the eruption on other parts, particularly on the elbows and knees; but the general eruption may be insig- nificant as compared with that of the head. Alphos faciei.—As a general rule, it may be said that alphos never occurs upon the face ; but there are occasional exceptions, and the above designation is intended to record the exception. On the face the patches are usually flat and very little raised, and often present the characters of alphos pityriasicus. It is always associated with patches of erup- tion occurring on other parts of the body. Alphos manuum indicates another exceptional seat of the eruption—the back of the hands. We have also seen it once or twice on the palm of the hands. In this, as in the generality of the varieties, the eruption is also met with elsewhere, and notably on the elbows and knees. Alphos unguium illustrates a more common seat of the disease—namely, the matrix of the nail, where it destroys the normal secretion and growth of the nail, causes its separation from the derma, and subsequent fall. We have a patient under our care (a young lady) Who, besides general alphos, also suffers with alphos faciei, dorsi manuum, et un- guium ; the existence of alphos of the nails must generally be regarded as a serious aggravation of the affection, and indicates an obstinate form of the disease. Alphos articulorum reminds us of the special propensity of this eruption to attack the convex side of the elbows and knees. It is very rarely absent from these regions when it exists elsewhere, and not uncommonly it lingers on them