Drug eruptions : a clinical study of the irritant effects of drugs upon the skin.

  • Morrow, Prince A. (Prince Albert), 1846-1913.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Drug eruptions : a clinical study of the irritant effects of drugs upon the skin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    continuity, or upon the assumption that it is due to the absorption of the drug and is an expression of its constitu- tional action. The second class of effects is far from being constant. Their production seems to depend less upon the intimate nature of the exciting cause than upon a specific predis- position of the cutaneous tissues to disordered action^ which may be expressed by the term morbid aptitude. As in the case of anomalous eruptions from the internal use of medicines, the eruptive form is determined rather by the individual than by the drug. Thus we recognize in tar acne the specific irritating effect of tar upon the- cutaneous tissue ; but in one individual the use of tar may produce a simple dermatitis; in another, erysipelas ; in another, a pustular or a furuncular inflammation ; while in the large majority of individuals it will cause no erup- tive disturbance whatever, the difference of the effect de- pending upon the reaction of the skin in the different in- dividuals. This variation in susceptibility to irritant influences of the skin of different persons may depend upon physiologi- cal conditions, such as a greater fineness or delicacy of texture, or upon a peculiar excitability or irritability of the sensory nerves, which disposes them to take offence at the slightest provocation. We find that this vulnerability of the skin which renders it abnormally incapable of re- sisting disturbing influences is manifest in relation to poison ivy, vegetable parasites, the exciting causes of eczema, and, in fact, all external irritants. The cutaneous changes caused by the external applica- tion of drugs admit of a simple explanation. The drug acts, just as caloric or mechanical irritants do, upon the nerve element alone, the resulting changes being phe- nomena of irritation. The irritation of the peripheral ex-