On chronic skin diseases treated by the waters of Aix-la-Chapelle / by Dr. Schumacher, Jr.

  • Schumacher, Carl.
Date:
[1882]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On chronic skin diseases treated by the waters of Aix-la-Chapelle / by Dr. Schumacher, Jr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    We conclude with an important class of skin diseases, which, although they do not primarily originate in the skin, appear on its surface in a secondary manner, and therefore are justly classed in this group. We refer to the ulcerated sores on and in the skin of the shins. In this large city, with its population of about 90,000 souls, we have every opportunity of studying these cases, and are quite willing to acknowledge the beneficial results of local treatment. But our experience of various most extensive and serious cases, during several years, has taught us, that in curing these sores, our bathing treatment is most valu¬ able and important. We use the baths either with or with¬ out local treatment, with the view of not only healing the ulcerated sores, but also of retaining the successful results. We ascribe the importance of our thermal treatment to its action upon the original causes of ulcerated shins, because * it changes and stimulates the disturbed circulation of the blood and improves the eczema, the scrofula, and the gout, which often co-exist in these cases. All this suffering is by no means the sad privilege of the poorer classes. Most of our patients come from the upper classes of society. Frequently the ulcerated sores had already been healed by local treatment, but the inevitable return of the malady brings the patients naturally to Aix- la-Chapelle. In most cases the disease appears in middle- aged and old people. In slight cases no ulcers were to be found; but there appeared oedematous swellings of the skin, especially round the joints of the foot, which, by their pressure on the nerves, brought on parsesthetic sensations, shivering and cramps. In more developed cases inflamma¬ tion in and round the veins was visible, followed by a thickening and discoloration of the skin, by. eczema, and by pruritus. In fully developed cases the ulcerated sores showed themselves generally in two forms, seldom found united in the same patient. In th'e first case the characteristic ulcus cruris was visible, at times with a pair of ulcers originating probably from a blow or from scratching. In the second case we found that along the skin of the shins, seemingly without any direct
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