Manual of diseases of the skin / from the French of Cazenave and Schedel ; with notes and additions by Thomas H. Burgess.

Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual of diseases of the skin / from the French of Cazenave and Schedel ; with notes and additions by Thomas H. Burgess. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    41/340 (page 27)
    M. Biett lias described a very remarkable variety of this disease under the name of Erythema centrifugum. It is ot very rare occur- rence, and appears most frequently in young people, especially in females, whose health is otherwise excellent. It attacks the face chiefly. It generally appears in the form of round red patches, slightly elevated, and about the size of a shilling: these patches generally begin by a small red spot, slightly papular, which gradu- ally increases in circumference, and sometimes spreads over the greater part of the face. The edges of the patches are prominent, and the centre, which retains its natural colour, is depressed. There is a considerable degree of heat and redness, but no pain or itching, and each patch leaves a slight depression on the skin. The causes of this variety are unknown. It sometimes coexists with dysmennorrhcea •, it is an essentially chronic affection, although its appearance would indicate the reverse. An epidemic variety of this disease appeared in Paris in 1828 and 1829, which has been described under the name of Acrodinia, the principal features of which were an erythematous eruption on the hands and feet, accompanied with a thickening and exfoliation of the epidermis. It was preceded, for several weeks, by un- easiness, headache, nausea, dull pains in the limbs, and obstinate diarrhoea. The soles of the feet and the hands then became numb, and the patient experienced a kind of prickling and shooting sensa- tion in those parts, which generally increased towards night. These symptoms were usually accompanied with a perversion or diminution in the sensibility of the affected parts. Sometimes the slightest touch produced the most intense pain ; and in other cases, on the contrary, the sensibility of the skin was so torpid, that the patients dropped their shoes without perceiving it, and the pave- ment appeared as soft as if their feet were covered with cotton. In a few instances the sense of touch was almost entirely destroyed, and in others the smoothest surfaces appeared rough and uneven when touched. This morbid condition, which occasionally pro- duced contraction, palsy, and wasting of the limb, often existed without any apparent inflammation; but in general it was either preceded or accompanied with a certain degree of erythema, attended with the following symptoms: the palms of the hands were generally of a crimson red colour, which disappeared for a