On follicular disease of the scalp / by James F. Goodhart.

  • Goodhart, James Frederic, 1845-1916.
Date:
[1870]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On follicular disease of the scalp / by James F. Goodhart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    very probable, that a tendency to abnormal cell growth may be engrafted on the ovum from the parent. That sebaceous cysts or tumours occurring in connection with the skin are entirely new formations, in the sense that they have no connection at any period of their development with the sebaceous glands or hair follicles, I see no evidence. One other point of some interest may also be touched upon here, inasmuch as it has a rather wide bearing on many pathological processes. I refer to the view that has been generally held that the horny layer of the epidermis, sebaceous matter, &c., is so far an excretion as to be entirely dead to the body which pro- duced it, and to be no longer a part of that body, but an extra- neous substance. These follicular tumours seem rather to point to an opposite conclusion, and tend to show that cells whose proper function is to form sebaceous matter are by no means incapable of further life when shed, but that, under favorable conditions, the most obvious of which is that they shall be re- tained within the parent follicle or cyst, they may imbibe nutriment sufficient to maintain a low state of existence till, by the projection of vessels into the mass, that existence shall become to a certain extent secured. The same principle is accepted without hesitation in the case of skin grafting, and it seems perfectly sufficient to explain the contagious principle of molluscum contagiosum or, even still further, the possible contagious element in a cell of any tumour. Such a thing, at any rate, is not impossible. And now for a word on the more general relations of follicular tumours. They have been described by Mr. Cock, in the paper before alluded to, as groAvths which are of an innocent nature, that is to say, which are non-infiltrating, non-recur- rent, and without any of the anatomical characteristics of cancer. In taking this question into consideration, however, I Avould wish to bring prominently into notice one feature of such cases which is surely very significant, and which, it may be, has been rather overlooked. I refer to the time of life at which the disease occurs. Of the various cases which arc re- corded of follicular disease, Mr. Cock gives the ages of five patients; they were 65, 40, 45, 72, and 53 years of age respec- tively. Sir James Paget gives a note of a case in his * Surgical Pathology' at 80 years. Pelpech describes such a disease