SEVERAL CASES OF ATROPHY OF THE SKIN. ALEXANDER. (_Derm. Zeitschr._,
Bd. xi, Heft 5, p. 338.)
Four cases in all are alluded to in this paper. The first patient, a man
aged 31 years, showed all the symptoms of an epidermolysis bullosa, with
slight ulceration, but the affection was said to have begun at the age
of 18 and only to occur periodically. The second case was that of an old
woman, aged 70 years, who also had an abdominal tumour, of which she
died. Material showed that there was a complete loss of the papillæ, the
elastic tissue had disappeared to only the slightest traces, and there
were signs of inflammatory infiltration present. The third case was that
of a woman, aged 55 years, with marked syringo-myelia; and the rash,
which appeared as small nodules, terminating in atrophy, affected the
axillæ, the inner sides of the upper arms, the groins, the inner sides
of both thighs, the back, and abdomen. The author says that one is
tempted to connect this with the condition of the cord, but to do so is
the purest theoretical speculation. The fourth case was a woman, aged 42
years, who showed on the left side of the nose a circular patch as large
as a sixpence, over which the skin was of a bluish-red colour, and
somewhat infiltrated. There were some scars caused by the therapeutic
use of electrolysis.
(From the short description of this last case it does not seem clear why
the diagnosis of Lupus erythematosus was not made.—A. W.)