A practical treatise upon eczema : including its lichenous, impetiginous and pruriginous varieties / by T. M'Call Anderson.

  • Anderson, McCall, 1836-1908.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise upon eczema : including its lichenous, impetiginous and pruriginous varieties / by T. M'Call Anderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    2. Exudation on the Surface of the Skin.—The exudation may take place constantly or principally when the circulation is excited, or the part exposed to friction, as when the patient scratches it. The observer must not therefore be led astray by the absence of exudation at the time the part is under inspection, but must always ask the patient if the eruption is ever moist, or, to use expressions in more general use in this part of the country, and especially amongst the poorer classes, if it ever waters or leets. In a few cases of eczema, however, and particularly of the lichenous forms, there is little, if any exudation, and consequently there are no crusts throughout the whole course of the disease. The exudation is often of a purulent nature, owing to the rupture of pustules, but more frequently serous, com- ing from the bottom of fissures, from the surface of excoriations, or from the rupture of vesicles. It is occasionally mixed with blood coming from the bottom of fissures, or from lacerations of the skin produced by the nails of the sufferer. It has the property of staining the under-clothing with which it comes in contact, and of stiffening it as starch does. It may be produced artificially by painting over the eczematous surface a solution of potash (say gr. x. of potassa fusa to the %]. of water), which, acting as an irritant, not only produces a copious exudation on the surface of the skin, but likewise stimulates the capillary circu- lation of the part, and thereby induces absorption