A handbook on diseases of the skin : with especial reference to diagnosis and treatment / by Robert Liveing.

  • Liveing, Robert, 1834-1919.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook on diseases of the skin : with especial reference to diagnosis and treatment / by Robert Liveing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/470 (page 8)
    Zona follows the course of particular nerves, hence its characteristic forms. Gutta rosea and erythematous lupus are often butterfly-shaped ; the patches of erythema nodosum are rounded or oval and tumid. Many other examples might be given, but enough has been said to call attention to the fact above mentioned, and to indicate its possible value in diagnosis. Hitherto I have considered only the component parts and forms of separate patches of eruption, complete in themselves, but occupying it may be circumscribed areas. It is often however necessary to extend our field of ob- servation and compare or contrast eruptions met with at the same time in different parts of the body. As I have before stated, the coincident appearance of different kinds of cutaneous eruption in one and the same individual is one of the characteristics of syphilis. III. I pass on to consider, in the next place, the sub- ject of locality and its bearings on diagnosis. Some skin affections are strictly local, not only in contradistinction to general, but also as being located in certain regions of the body only. As a rule, when eruptions appear on various parts of the body at the same time, more especially if the distribution is symmetrical, we may suspect either a constitutional tendency to the malady or a specific poison pervading the system. The efflorescence of fevers and syphilis is an example of the latter; that of psoriasis and eczema of the former. Some diseases however, are invariably confined to certain localities, as for example, acne rosacea to the face and sycosis to the hairy parts of the face. Other affections never invade certain regions; thus, scabies in adults is never present on the face or scalp, or acne on the soles or palms. By a process of ex- clusion then, we should never apply the term acne rosacea to a red patch situated on the thigh, or call an eruption on the face Scabies. Other skin affections, while they are not strictly confined to one locality, yet have a marked