Pemphigus of the skin and mucous membrane of the mouth, associated with "essential shrinking" and pemphigus of the conjunctivae / by A. Hill Griffith.

  • Morris, Malcolm, Sir, 1849-1924.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pemphigus of the skin and mucous membrane of the mouth, associated with "essential shrinking" and pemphigus of the conjunctivae / by A. Hill Griffith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    was five weeks ill during the first, and eight weeks during the second of these attacks, and was not treated professionally. She has sustained innumerable small burns and accidents. The patient cannot give a connected account of the course of her present illness. The pemphigus of the skin appears to have started some five years ago, during her recovery from the second attack of rheumatic fever. It had been re- current and subject to acute exacerbations when the patient took cold. The eye affection had begun with epiphora, and they had, soon afterwards, become inflamed. She has been a laundress all her life, and during the summer of 1888 had sufi'ered from much domestic hardship, with in- sufiiciency of food. Present state.—On November 7th, 1888, her condition was as follows :—General bodily and mental state feeble. Has some dysphonia. The skin of almost every part of her body is marked by scars of various ages and appearances. That of both cheeks is converted into glossy, scar-like tissue, of a mottled, purplish colour. The auricles of both ears on their inner surface and the forehead presents similar scar-like patches. Both upper extremities, on their flexor and inner aspects, are covered with scars. Most of these have a purple colour, and are raised, and when grasped between the fingers feel thicker than the normal skin. Others, much smaller, are thin, and have a pearly lustre, the skin between them being deeply pigmented. On the chest, abdomen, back, thighs, and legs are scars quite similar in appearance to those on the arms; some of them are covered with broken, dead epidermis. Many of these scars the patient attributes to burns and other accidents ; only those on the arms and face seem due to pemphigus. On the mucous membrane of the hard palate is a white shrunken patch about 1 cm. broad, and surrounded by a dark red areola. The left eye.—The palpebral fissure is narrowed transversely and vertically. Both lids are of a red colour, and the upper one partially droops. On depressing the lower lid the cul-de- sac is seen to be nearly obliterated, and several bands or bridges of conjunctiva, pale and thickened, pass from the palpebral to the ocular surface. The ocular conjunctiva is