Skin diseases and their remedies / by Robert J. Jordan.

  • Jordan, Henry J.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Skin diseases and their remedies / by Robert J. Jordan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    192/304 (page 176)
    covered with dense polygonal scales or spines, and the subcutaneous cellular tissue is some- what thickened. The term fish-skin-disease aptly expresses the shagreen-lilce appearance of the skin. Ichthyosis is a perfectly chronic disease, generally hereditary, affecting the parts in which the skin is naturally thick, and the epidermis rough, and attended at no time by pruritus, heat, or any other symptom of in- flammatory action. Under the diseased cover- ing, indeed, as may be seen now and then, when this covering peels off, the skin would seem to be, to all appearance, in a natuial state. Two varieties of ichthyosis are described— I. squamosa, and I. spinosa. In the case of I. spinosa, the spines are sometimes developed to such an extraordinary degree as to bear no distant resemblance to those of a porcupine. The well-known case of the “Porcupine Boy is an instance in point. The scales of the scaly variety may also be developed so as to resemble the thick plates of an alligator, in which case Mr. Wilson’s name, sauriderma, is not inappropriate. Mr. Wilson has shown, very satisfactorily.