Dermatitis herpetiformis : its relation to so-called impetigo herpetiformis / by Louis A. Duhring.

  • Duhring, Louis A., 1845-1913.
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dermatitis herpetiformis : its relation to so-called impetigo herpetiformis / by Louis A. Duhring. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    appeared a great many “ pemphigus blebs” on the abdomen, the back, and the feet, accompanied with high fever, weak pulse, signs of collapse, brain symptoms, and manifold other serious constitutional disturbances. The mouth and cutaneous manifestations were on several occasions repeated during the next three months, followed by emaciation, oedema, bed-sores, ascites, the patient dying from oedema of the brain. Heitzmann concludes his remarks by stating that the disease is closely allied to pemphigus, and the diseases must be regarded as being kindred to each other. In recent English and American literature, with a few exceptions, no reference is made to impetigo herpetiformis, either as a distinctive disease or to the cases described by Hebra. Thus the books of Liveing,1 Morris,2 Bulkley,3 and Fox4 contain no allusion to the subject. Hyde,5 in his Treatise on Diseases of the Skin, defines impetigo herpetiformis to be “a cutaneous disease of women, frequently complicating the puerperal state, characterized by the occurrence upon the skin and mucous membranes of concentrically grouped pustules and by a febrile condition which usually terminates fatally.” A description is given of the affection, mainly based upon the cases of Hebra, with an allusion to Duhring’s observations. Besnier and Doyon, eminent French dermatologists, and the translators of Kaposi’s Pcithologie und Therapie der Hanikrankheiten (Paris, 1881, vol. ii. p. 49), in a note state that the author’s description of impetigo herpetiformis is not sufficiently extended to base an opinion upon, and that it is necessary first to bring forward a record of the facts. They object to the denomination impetigo herpetiformis; first, because “ la dermatite pustuleuse eircinee et excentrique,” of which they state the affection in question is an example, cannot be grouped with impetigo, as this term is used by French dermatologists; secondly, because the title herpetiform can be applied only to an affection truly of the form of herpes, that is to say, resembling the herpes type (herpes labialis, herpes zoster, etc.), and not to a special eruption which does not belong exclusively to herpes. They regard the disease as of septicemic origin. Barthelemy states6 7 that the disease is rare in France, although it is not unknown to French accoucheurs, who regard it of septicemic origin. G. Behrend, in his Lehrbnch der Haidkrankheiten? describes the disease briefly, draw¬ ing upon the Viennese observations for the account, but does not present any new facts. 1 Handbook of tbe Diagnosis of Skin Diseases, Amer. ed. New York, 1879. 2 Skin Diseases. London, 1879. 3 Manual of Skin Diseases. New York, 1882. 4 Epitome of Skin Diseases, 3d Am. ed., revised by T. C. Fox. Phila., 1883. 5 Philadelphia, 1883. 6 French translation of the second edition of Duhring’s Treatise on Skin Diseases, p. 334, note. Paris, 1883. 7 Berlin, 1883, 2te auflage, p. 260.