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.

    532/636 (page 514)
    opium upon the skin is an erythematous eruption whi may occur as diffuse uniform redness simulating scarlatir or it may be macular like that of measles, consisting small isolated spots of a bright or dusky red. They fit appear upon the face and neck and flexor surfaces of t' body, and are preceded by a hot itchy sensation in t' skin. Usually the eruption disappears promptly after di continuing the medicine, and is followed by a slight d squamation. Behrend reports a case of opium eruption which appear after taking a few powders containing one quarter grai It was a pale scarlatinoid eruption, which on near inspects was found to consist of minute papules closely studde distributed over the chest from clavicle to end of sternu: upon the inner side of the arms, flexor surfaces of foreari and wrist-joints, spreading down the thighs and inside knees, and terminating at the ankle in a stripe of li\ colour. The pruritus was of so violent a character as prevent sleep. The eruption subsided on suspension of t opium, but was promptly redeveloped on resuming its ui Desquamation of a branny character, foliaceous over han and feet, occurred several days later. Morod ordered pills of opium to a lady patient w declined to take them, declaring that every time she to opium it made her as red as a lobster. He prescrib instead syrup diacode. The next morning the patient w indeed red as a lobster, the eruption being accompani with intense itching. An exanthem resembling scarlatina has been observed the face, neck, hands, arms, and legs of a lady patient afl she had taken a single drop of laudanum. It has be observed that women are much more subject than men the incidental irritating effects of opium.1 1 Russell cites a case in which a single enema of laudanum was follov by an intense attack of urticaria. Brand records a case of a man in whom an erythematous rash of a wh limb followed a rubbing of the part with an opiated ammoniacal linime This man had previously suffered from generalised erythematous ras] after a second dose of opium and after hydrochlorate of morphia. It is a striking feature of opium and morphia eruptions that where tl occur there is a remarkable susceptibility to the drug in whatever way it