Selected monographs on dermatology / P.G. Unna [and others].

Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected monographs on dermatology / P.G. Unna [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    505/636 (page 487)
    The occurrence of cutaneous disturbances from the ingestion of iodide of potassium have been recognised since its introduction into the materia medica, although certain rare and somewhat singular effects upon the skin have not been recorded until within a few years past. The literature of iodic eruptions, comprising almost in- numerable observation relating to all forms of cutaneous disorders, from simple erythema to the severest forms of dermatitis, attended with severe constitutional reaction, is so vast that its mere enumeration would require several pages. Fischer, who, as early as 1859, made a special study of iodic eruptions, divides them into four principal forms, the erythematous, the urticarial, the nodulo-pustular, and the eczematous. Since then, with the widening of our know- ledge of the range of pathogenetic action of this drug, new eruptive elements have been recognised. Fournier, though by no means the first to describe the petechial form, has traced its clinical characters with precision. The bullous form, first described by O'Keilly, of New York, has been carefully studied by Bumstead and others. Quite recently Oelso Pellizari has reported two very rare cases, in which there were large inflammatory nodular masses, varying in size fi'om that of a nut to the size of the fist, seated in the subcutaneous cellular tissue, accompanied by high fever, followed by abscesses which healed slowly and left cicatrices. Besnier has still more recently called attention to a carbuncular eruption, under the designation of eruption anthracoide iodo-potassique. The iodic eruptions may be classed according to their elementary lesions, as follows : The erythematous form.—This usually occurs on forearms, face, and anterior surface of the chest. The redness may be diffuse, or appear in discrete and irregular spots or in large circumscribed patches ; exceptionally it may extend over the whole surface of the body. This hyperajmia may be intensified and developed into— The papular and urticarial form.—There may appear upon of the hands following the application of Tinct. Iodi to one of them.— T. C. F.