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PRACTICAL NOTES ON CUTANEOUS SUBJECTS.
363 -----------
3
him to the easy reception of pysemia. Whether It makes all the difference whether the lupus be severe or reasonable view of the matter or not I leave slight. If it be small in extent, it can be readily destroyed for the consideration of those surgeons who have had large by astringents or by mild caustics. If there be only slight infiltration, I have found painting the part several times a experience amongst Englishmen in India. I have seen one other case of pysemia in private practice, day with liquor plumbi after applying hot water suffice to but it did not occur after a surgical operation. It was in remove it, especially if the patch be very hypersamic. If the the person of a medical man living by the seaside, who had small spot be tubercular, the nitrate-of-zinc paste of the injured his’finger whilst performing an operation for ne- University College Hospital Pharmacopoeia, or the acid crosis. Symptoms slowly set in a few days after the receipt nitrate of mercury, or, better still, biniodide of mercury and of the injury, and they were so ill defined that the case was glycerine (twenty grains to the half ounce), applied freely supposed to be one of ordinary fever and then of rheumatic once or twice, suffices. The part should be retouched on the fever. After a fortnight I was requested to go and see him, removal of the scab which forms, once or more, till the parts in consultation with his attendant, a very eminent provincial are levelled down to their proper plane. If the lupus is surgeon. I found the patient with the peculiar py2emic more extensive, but still yet an infiltration, and indolent as aspect of face, and the unclouded and hopeful state of mind in lupus erythematodes, the best remedies are the emwhich one so often meets with in what I may term the more plastrum hydrargyri, with occasional applications of equal prolonged cases. There was no deposit in or pain about the parts of caustic potash and water. When a lupus is tender, very hypersemio, and shows a corresponding arm, but there were great swelling and fluctuation in one knee-joint. It was this circumstance, doubt- tendency to spread, whilst the amount of blood in it is easily less, that misled the very experienced surgeon who was increased by exposure or irritants, I think caustics are to attending him. I had no hesitation in stating at once that be avoided for a while. In such cases, if the deposit is the patient was suffering from pyaemia, and that his knee- marked, it is necessary to use very powerful caustics, and joint was full of pus ; an incision there was followed by the these freely, in order to destroy the growth. The result is evacuation of an enormous amount of purulent matter and scarring, and not only this, but the disease tends to great relief, but the symptoms of pyeamia continued un- spread and to develop in the healthy contiguous parts-the more so if the patient is out of health. checked and this gentleman died. My rule is in such With regard to the cause of the pysemia, in the first case cases to check the hypersemia first of all by excluding the especially, it may be asked whether I had had much to do air, soaking in oil to get off scales and scabs, and applying When the patch assumes an indolent with cases of erysipelas in the hospital. We were very freeI calamine lotion. both from erysipelas and pysemia this last autumn. In the i aspect, and the patient’s health has been improved, then is autumn before, however, when I had charge of Sir William the time to apply caustics. But I am sure that many cases Fergusson’s beds in addition to my own, and an unusual of lupus are spread by the improper use of caustics. amount of severe bone and joint cases were operated on, In all cases in which the lupus is tubercular, in which the pysemia was rather prevalent for a time; but although I deposit or infiltration is well-marked or excessive, caustics was actively engaged in operating in private at the same must be freely used. But even in regard to these cases I time, I did not meet with a single case of blood-poisoning would advise that the general health should be improved if or erysipelas. need be, before caustics are used, or the disease may spread Wimpole-street, W. through irritation set up in the adjoining parts, which thereupon participate in the general defective nutrition. It will be observed, then, that I treat lupus which crusts by antistrumous remedies ; lupus which is very hypersemic by PRACTICAL NOTES ON CUTANEOUS soothing and mild astringent applications ; and use caustics SUBJECTS. to lupus which is not red, hot, and tender, but in which the infiltration is marked, and the hypersemia is of an indolent BY TILBURY FOX, M.D. LOND., F.R.C.P., kind. PHYSICIAN TO THE DEPARTMENT FOR SKIN DISEASES IN UNIVERSITY
disposed this be
a
great
Various caustics are recommended for the destruction of The acid nitrate of mercury is useful and manageable, since its action can be limited to the locality desired. VII.-THE TREATMENT OF LUPUS. It is useful in marked lupus of the face of tubercular I AM opposed in some important points to the treatment character. Caustic potash is effective, but it leaves hard of lupus laid down in books. Especially I think that irri- scars, and is not, therefore, advisable for the face. Nitratetants and caustics, so necessary sometimes, are often used of-zinc paste is good for patches if much infiltrated. It does where soothing remedies should be employed. The essential, not give much pain; nor does it scar greatly, and I prefer it to any other kind of caustic for the face. Arsenical caustics and in fact only, treatment, according to most authorities, Biniodide of are available under the same conditions. consists in causing the removal of the lupus neoplasm by mercury and glycerine, in the proportion of from 10 to 20 caustics, and many at once resort to their use. But there grains of the former to half an ounce of the latter, is useful in cases of well-marked tubercular lupus. The galvanic are several important preliminaries which should, in my local treatment is cautery and the hot iron suit the severer and more obbe into account before taken any opinion, stinate cases of thickened lupus patches. Nitrate-of-silver adopted. In the first place, it is very necessary to ascertain stick is the favourite Vienna It is said to leave whether the lupus is uncomplicated or not. If the patient thin scars. But Vienna and remedy. London cases are different. be strumous or phthisical, there will be a special tendency No doubt the nitrate-of-silver stick is good in lupus cases to free pus-production, and he or she must be treated for accompanied by much ulceration or with implication of the struma vigorously, by appropriate diet, change of air, iron, deep cellular tissue, for a caustic is there needed which can cod-liver oil, and the like, so as to get rid as far as possible, be applied effectively to the boggy and extensive lupus before commencing severe local treatment, of the pus-pro- infiltration, and yet not affect the healthier tissues around. duction. If there be a suspicion of a syphilitic taint, I do It may be used freely without much harm, and without not hesitate to give, in conjunction with the use of cod-liver causing undue scarring. If I had Vienna cases to treat, I oil and quinine, anti-syphilitic remedies. Patients with should use the caustic point, perhaps ; but then the English erythematous lupus, in good health, and in whom syphilis cases do not tend to ulcerate or to be complicated by seems to exist, will often be greatly benefited by the same extensive inflammatory implication of the connective tissue, kind of treatment, or by a long course of iodides. In some and the more active caustics can be used so as to limit their cases there exists in greater or less degree defective assimioperation as desired. lation from bad living, or ansemia, or general debility only. The mode of using these caustics is very simple. They It will be requisite for good success in the treatment of the should be used cautiously to a small portion at first, and case to improve the patient’s health by appropriate remedies especially to the edge of the lupus patch at the outset, so before the use of local remedies of any severity, otherwise as to get a circumferential scar across which the lupus inthe disease is more liable to spread during the progress of filtration cannot spread. If the patch becomes inflamed a the local treatment. poultice may be applied for a few hours, and the part Now as to this local treatment. The object is to get rid dressed with some soothing unguent, the caustic being reof the lupus growth with as little disfigurement as possible. applied when the irritation has subsided, and again and COLLEGE HOSPITAL.
lupus.
.
364 until the diseased surface has levelled down to a little below the plane of the healthy skin, the infiltration has practically disappeared, and the resulting surface begins ,to acquire a comparatively non-vascular, pale, and, in fact,
again
cicatricial aspect.
ON A FEW
ABNORMALITIES AND CERTAIN MORBID CONDITIONS MET WITH IN RECRUITS. BY A. LEITH ADAMS, M.B., SURGEON-MAJOR,
F.R.S.,
LONDON RECRUITING DISTRICT.
No I. THE following notes were taken during the physical examination of over 25,000 recruits ; and although referring to conditions already known and for the most part carefully described, it seems to me important that the recorded data, especially in connexion with the heredity of certain abnormalities, should be further illustrated, and the results arrived at by Sedgwick, Prosper, Lucas, Darwin, and others, conformed as far as possible, more especially the laws in connexion with sexual hereditv and atavism. It must be further understood, in relation to the following, that the statements as regards the hereditary characters of the cases are given on the authority of the recruits affected; and although inheritance could not always be traced, it must not be accepted in such instances that nothing of the kind existed. I have made no attempt at any systematic classification of the subjects, and give them much in their order of occurrence in my note-book. Ncevi materni, or congenital discolorations of the skin-to wit, ; *’ tno!es," "birth stains," and leucodermic patches.-I have a mass of notes with reference to these abnormal discolorations and their undoubted heredity. They occur on almost every region of the body, and embrace a great variety of colour and form. When circumscribed, smooth or hairy, and of a red, brown, or black colour, they are vulgarly called ... moles"; ,whilst fainter splashes, of irregular outline, are usually styled " birth stains." Of several hundred persons whom I interrogated as to the reputed cause of these marks in connexion with the mother, there were received replies from a great majority ascribing the abnormality to some incident that occurred (a fright, or longing for some article of food) during gestation. Thus, an oblong black mole on the calf of the leg was the result of the man’s mother longing for a sausage. A black hairy patch on the forearm was caused by being frightened by a mouse. Bright-red strawberry marks were associated with an earnest desire on the part of the mother for that fruit, or for a lobster or red cabbage. Moreover, besides often fanciful resemblances to these and other objects, there is a belief that the fruit-stains get brighter at the season when the fruit is ripe. Altogether, the pertinacity wherewith many mothers adhere to their views on the etiology of birth stains is remarkable, and in consequence it is often . difficult to trace any inheritance. There can be no doubt whatever that, independent of emotions, there is a tendency on the part of these discolorations to get brighter and more pronounced at certain seasons than at others, and to be influenced in this respect by climate and the health of the individual. Instances of melanosis resulting from fright, and of grey hairs having succeeded severe grief, are recorded ; and if it is admitted that such conditions are compatible with sudden and severe mental emotions, is there any reason why many forms of naevi materni may not have been brought about by the same influences during gestation ? Might the reversion to a lost character in the faetus be in part or altogether reproduced by shocks of fear, deep sorrow, ’horror, &o., on the parent? The situations where moles chiefly occur are the hips, the loins, the spine, and , between the shoulders; they are also common on the epi- gastrium, and least plentiful on the extremities and head. The colour is not determinable by the temperament; jetblack hairy moles being often seen on persons with very light hair and light-coloured irides. Of fifty instances promiscuously taken during the physical examination of re’
less than twenty asserted that marks of precisely character and on exactly the same spot were present in one or other parent, or in one or more of their children. "Moles" are divisible into-1st. The black naked or hairy mole, which varies much in size and shape, and very frequently appears on the extremities, especially on the buttock or shoulder. The hairs are generally long, dense, and black; sometimes the surface is granulated ("gooseskinned") ;and the elevated mole, surrounded by a white zone, has all the aspect of a detached portion of the skin of any of the lower animals-to wit, the ape. Often this discoloration has a bronzed aspect, with or without hair. 2nd. There are various shades of brown-coloured moles, which are not frequently covered with hair, nor are they partial to certain regions. 3rd. The red mole varies in character and colour from an aneurismal varix to a simple red-brown stain. Sometimes it is purple or intense red, brick-coloured, or pale-red. It is oftenest met with on the hips and lower extremities. 11 birth stains" are irregular-shaped discolorations, less defined in outline than moles, and usually fainter in colour, often blending imperceptibly with the normal colour. They are occasionally very large, in the shape of light-brown, black, or red splashes on the hips, sacrum, and sides of the body or elsewhere; sometimes hairy; or numerous, as in the shape of "freckles," which are also well known to be
cruits, the
no
same
hereditary. As a general rule,
it was found that seldom a person presented himself with numerous moles on the body who did not assert that one or other of his blood-relatives was also conspicuously marked in the same manner, whether in the exactly same spot or not. Whatever may give rise to these cuticular discolorations, they are undoubtedly hereditary in very many cases, but not apparently sexual; whilst othersto wit, the large purple and red splashes affecting superficial bloodvessels-often occur without any traceable inheritance; and curious instances have been recorded, on good medical authority, of sudden shocks to the pregnant female,* and many other coincidences which may or may not be correlative. A 11 clean skin," in the sense of a natural absence of the above, and general smoothness, are most assuredly inherited. How far habits and modes of living affect either is a question I am unable to answer; and I shall not pronounce judgment on the very pithecoid, black, hairy moles, -whether or not they be unmeaning lusus naturce, or a vestige of the ancient dermal covering of man. It is no answer to the question of their origin to merely state that they on an " excess of colouring matter in the skin," and depend 11 are melanotic patches." The differences, however, between such cuticular discolorations and the red splashes dependent on abnormal conditions of the bloodvessels are of course quite specific, and have no probable relation whatever. As to the sexual heredity of moles in general, I could not connect them with either parent in particular; the mother being as often affected as the father, and the daughters and sons partook of the abnormality promiscuously. With reference to 11 leucodermic marks." These were often covered with white hairs on swarthy-skinned persons, also mulattos and half-castes. They were often seen on the genital organs and pubes, and less frequently on the front of the chest, back, and hips. Several asserted to have observed their own condition in relatives. All were indisputably congenital; and frequently persons with dark skins and light-blue or grey irides had paler coloured patches on certain regions, and the hair was invariably the same colour as the patch. In one instance a man, aged twentyfive, had a dark, swarthy skin and light-blue irides, with a bare leucodermic patch on the belly, and a white tuft of hair on the pubes. The hair on the head was prematurely grey, which he said was a family state. In another there was bronzed skin, in great splashes, on the trunk; none on the lower extremities, nor on the hands and arms and face. All had been disappearing steadily for several years. Present age nineteen. Another had light-brown splash on the abdomen, surrounding islands of natural-coloured skin; there were smaller patches of the same sort in the armpits. Large oblong black mole on the back of right forearm. Face and throat bronzed. His mother and her brother were similarly marked, but only as regards the bronze colour. He has one sister not marked. His mother has married again, * Tae LANCET, 180, pp. 862 and 960.
3
him to the easy reception of pysemia. Whether It makes all the difference whether the lupus be severe or reasonable view of the matter or not I leave slight. If it be small in extent, it can be readily destroyed for the consideration of those surgeons who have had large by astringents or by mild caustics. If there be only slight infiltration, I have found painting the part several times a experience amongst Englishmen in India. I have seen one other case of pysemia in private practice, day with liquor plumbi after applying hot water suffice to but it did not occur after a surgical operation. It was in remove it, especially if the patch be very hypersamic. If the the person of a medical man living by the seaside, who had small spot be tubercular, the nitrate-of-zinc paste of the injured his’finger whilst performing an operation for ne- University College Hospital Pharmacopoeia, or the acid crosis. Symptoms slowly set in a few days after the receipt nitrate of mercury, or, better still, biniodide of mercury and of the injury, and they were so ill defined that the case was glycerine (twenty grains to the half ounce), applied freely supposed to be one of ordinary fever and then of rheumatic once or twice, suffices. The part should be retouched on the fever. After a fortnight I was requested to go and see him, removal of the scab which forms, once or more, till the parts in consultation with his attendant, a very eminent provincial are levelled down to their proper plane. If the lupus is surgeon. I found the patient with the peculiar py2emic more extensive, but still yet an infiltration, and indolent as aspect of face, and the unclouded and hopeful state of mind in lupus erythematodes, the best remedies are the emwhich one so often meets with in what I may term the more plastrum hydrargyri, with occasional applications of equal prolonged cases. There was no deposit in or pain about the parts of caustic potash and water. When a lupus is tender, very hypersemio, and shows a corresponding arm, but there were great swelling and fluctuation in one knee-joint. It was this circumstance, doubt- tendency to spread, whilst the amount of blood in it is easily less, that misled the very experienced surgeon who was increased by exposure or irritants, I think caustics are to attending him. I had no hesitation in stating at once that be avoided for a while. In such cases, if the deposit is the patient was suffering from pyaemia, and that his knee- marked, it is necessary to use very powerful caustics, and joint was full of pus ; an incision there was followed by the these freely, in order to destroy the growth. The result is evacuation of an enormous amount of purulent matter and scarring, and not only this, but the disease tends to great relief, but the symptoms of pyeamia continued un- spread and to develop in the healthy contiguous parts-the more so if the patient is out of health. checked and this gentleman died. My rule is in such With regard to the cause of the pysemia, in the first case cases to check the hypersemia first of all by excluding the especially, it may be asked whether I had had much to do air, soaking in oil to get off scales and scabs, and applying When the patch assumes an indolent with cases of erysipelas in the hospital. We were very freeI calamine lotion. both from erysipelas and pysemia this last autumn. In the i aspect, and the patient’s health has been improved, then is autumn before, however, when I had charge of Sir William the time to apply caustics. But I am sure that many cases Fergusson’s beds in addition to my own, and an unusual of lupus are spread by the improper use of caustics. amount of severe bone and joint cases were operated on, In all cases in which the lupus is tubercular, in which the pysemia was rather prevalent for a time; but although I deposit or infiltration is well-marked or excessive, caustics was actively engaged in operating in private at the same must be freely used. But even in regard to these cases I time, I did not meet with a single case of blood-poisoning would advise that the general health should be improved if or erysipelas. need be, before caustics are used, or the disease may spread Wimpole-street, W. through irritation set up in the adjoining parts, which thereupon participate in the general defective nutrition. It will be observed, then, that I treat lupus which crusts by antistrumous remedies ; lupus which is very hypersemic by PRACTICAL NOTES ON CUTANEOUS soothing and mild astringent applications ; and use caustics SUBJECTS. to lupus which is not red, hot, and tender, but in which the infiltration is marked, and the hypersemia is of an indolent BY TILBURY FOX, M.D. LOND., F.R.C.P., kind. PHYSICIAN TO THE DEPARTMENT FOR SKIN DISEASES IN UNIVERSITY
disposed this be
a
great
Various caustics are recommended for the destruction of The acid nitrate of mercury is useful and manageable, since its action can be limited to the locality desired. VII.-THE TREATMENT OF LUPUS. It is useful in marked lupus of the face of tubercular I AM opposed in some important points to the treatment character. Caustic potash is effective, but it leaves hard of lupus laid down in books. Especially I think that irri- scars, and is not, therefore, advisable for the face. Nitratetants and caustics, so necessary sometimes, are often used of-zinc paste is good for patches if much infiltrated. It does where soothing remedies should be employed. The essential, not give much pain; nor does it scar greatly, and I prefer it to any other kind of caustic for the face. Arsenical caustics and in fact only, treatment, according to most authorities, Biniodide of are available under the same conditions. consists in causing the removal of the lupus neoplasm by mercury and glycerine, in the proportion of from 10 to 20 caustics, and many at once resort to their use. But there grains of the former to half an ounce of the latter, is useful in cases of well-marked tubercular lupus. The galvanic are several important preliminaries which should, in my local treatment is cautery and the hot iron suit the severer and more obbe into account before taken any opinion, stinate cases of thickened lupus patches. Nitrate-of-silver adopted. In the first place, it is very necessary to ascertain stick is the favourite Vienna It is said to leave whether the lupus is uncomplicated or not. If the patient thin scars. But Vienna and remedy. London cases are different. be strumous or phthisical, there will be a special tendency No doubt the nitrate-of-silver stick is good in lupus cases to free pus-production, and he or she must be treated for accompanied by much ulceration or with implication of the struma vigorously, by appropriate diet, change of air, iron, deep cellular tissue, for a caustic is there needed which can cod-liver oil, and the like, so as to get rid as far as possible, be applied effectively to the boggy and extensive lupus before commencing severe local treatment, of the pus-pro- infiltration, and yet not affect the healthier tissues around. duction. If there be a suspicion of a syphilitic taint, I do It may be used freely without much harm, and without not hesitate to give, in conjunction with the use of cod-liver causing undue scarring. If I had Vienna cases to treat, I oil and quinine, anti-syphilitic remedies. Patients with should use the caustic point, perhaps ; but then the English erythematous lupus, in good health, and in whom syphilis cases do not tend to ulcerate or to be complicated by seems to exist, will often be greatly benefited by the same extensive inflammatory implication of the connective tissue, kind of treatment, or by a long course of iodides. In some and the more active caustics can be used so as to limit their cases there exists in greater or less degree defective assimioperation as desired. lation from bad living, or ansemia, or general debility only. The mode of using these caustics is very simple. They It will be requisite for good success in the treatment of the should be used cautiously to a small portion at first, and case to improve the patient’s health by appropriate remedies especially to the edge of the lupus patch at the outset, so before the use of local remedies of any severity, otherwise as to get a circumferential scar across which the lupus inthe disease is more liable to spread during the progress of filtration cannot spread. If the patch becomes inflamed a the local treatment. poultice may be applied for a few hours, and the part Now as to this local treatment. The object is to get rid dressed with some soothing unguent, the caustic being reof the lupus growth with as little disfigurement as possible. applied when the irritation has subsided, and again and COLLEGE HOSPITAL.
lupus.
.
364 until the diseased surface has levelled down to a little below the plane of the healthy skin, the infiltration has practically disappeared, and the resulting surface begins ,to acquire a comparatively non-vascular, pale, and, in fact,
again
cicatricial aspect.
ON A FEW
ABNORMALITIES AND CERTAIN MORBID CONDITIONS MET WITH IN RECRUITS. BY A. LEITH ADAMS, M.B., SURGEON-MAJOR,
F.R.S.,
LONDON RECRUITING DISTRICT.
No I. THE following notes were taken during the physical examination of over 25,000 recruits ; and although referring to conditions already known and for the most part carefully described, it seems to me important that the recorded data, especially in connexion with the heredity of certain abnormalities, should be further illustrated, and the results arrived at by Sedgwick, Prosper, Lucas, Darwin, and others, conformed as far as possible, more especially the laws in connexion with sexual hereditv and atavism. It must be further understood, in relation to the following, that the statements as regards the hereditary characters of the cases are given on the authority of the recruits affected; and although inheritance could not always be traced, it must not be accepted in such instances that nothing of the kind existed. I have made no attempt at any systematic classification of the subjects, and give them much in their order of occurrence in my note-book. Ncevi materni, or congenital discolorations of the skin-to wit, ; *’ tno!es," "birth stains," and leucodermic patches.-I have a mass of notes with reference to these abnormal discolorations and their undoubted heredity. They occur on almost every region of the body, and embrace a great variety of colour and form. When circumscribed, smooth or hairy, and of a red, brown, or black colour, they are vulgarly called ... moles"; ,whilst fainter splashes, of irregular outline, are usually styled " birth stains." Of several hundred persons whom I interrogated as to the reputed cause of these marks in connexion with the mother, there were received replies from a great majority ascribing the abnormality to some incident that occurred (a fright, or longing for some article of food) during gestation. Thus, an oblong black mole on the calf of the leg was the result of the man’s mother longing for a sausage. A black hairy patch on the forearm was caused by being frightened by a mouse. Bright-red strawberry marks were associated with an earnest desire on the part of the mother for that fruit, or for a lobster or red cabbage. Moreover, besides often fanciful resemblances to these and other objects, there is a belief that the fruit-stains get brighter at the season when the fruit is ripe. Altogether, the pertinacity wherewith many mothers adhere to their views on the etiology of birth stains is remarkable, and in consequence it is often . difficult to trace any inheritance. There can be no doubt whatever that, independent of emotions, there is a tendency on the part of these discolorations to get brighter and more pronounced at certain seasons than at others, and to be influenced in this respect by climate and the health of the individual. Instances of melanosis resulting from fright, and of grey hairs having succeeded severe grief, are recorded ; and if it is admitted that such conditions are compatible with sudden and severe mental emotions, is there any reason why many forms of naevi materni may not have been brought about by the same influences during gestation ? Might the reversion to a lost character in the faetus be in part or altogether reproduced by shocks of fear, deep sorrow, ’horror, &o., on the parent? The situations where moles chiefly occur are the hips, the loins, the spine, and , between the shoulders; they are also common on the epi- gastrium, and least plentiful on the extremities and head. The colour is not determinable by the temperament; jetblack hairy moles being often seen on persons with very light hair and light-coloured irides. Of fifty instances promiscuously taken during the physical examination of re’
less than twenty asserted that marks of precisely character and on exactly the same spot were present in one or other parent, or in one or more of their children. "Moles" are divisible into-1st. The black naked or hairy mole, which varies much in size and shape, and very frequently appears on the extremities, especially on the buttock or shoulder. The hairs are generally long, dense, and black; sometimes the surface is granulated ("gooseskinned") ;and the elevated mole, surrounded by a white zone, has all the aspect of a detached portion of the skin of any of the lower animals-to wit, the ape. Often this discoloration has a bronzed aspect, with or without hair. 2nd. There are various shades of brown-coloured moles, which are not frequently covered with hair, nor are they partial to certain regions. 3rd. The red mole varies in character and colour from an aneurismal varix to a simple red-brown stain. Sometimes it is purple or intense red, brick-coloured, or pale-red. It is oftenest met with on the hips and lower extremities. 11 birth stains" are irregular-shaped discolorations, less defined in outline than moles, and usually fainter in colour, often blending imperceptibly with the normal colour. They are occasionally very large, in the shape of light-brown, black, or red splashes on the hips, sacrum, and sides of the body or elsewhere; sometimes hairy; or numerous, as in the shape of "freckles," which are also well known to be
cruits, the
no
same
hereditary. As a general rule,
it was found that seldom a person presented himself with numerous moles on the body who did not assert that one or other of his blood-relatives was also conspicuously marked in the same manner, whether in the exactly same spot or not. Whatever may give rise to these cuticular discolorations, they are undoubtedly hereditary in very many cases, but not apparently sexual; whilst othersto wit, the large purple and red splashes affecting superficial bloodvessels-often occur without any traceable inheritance; and curious instances have been recorded, on good medical authority, of sudden shocks to the pregnant female,* and many other coincidences which may or may not be correlative. A 11 clean skin," in the sense of a natural absence of the above, and general smoothness, are most assuredly inherited. How far habits and modes of living affect either is a question I am unable to answer; and I shall not pronounce judgment on the very pithecoid, black, hairy moles, -whether or not they be unmeaning lusus naturce, or a vestige of the ancient dermal covering of man. It is no answer to the question of their origin to merely state that they on an " excess of colouring matter in the skin," and depend 11 are melanotic patches." The differences, however, between such cuticular discolorations and the red splashes dependent on abnormal conditions of the bloodvessels are of course quite specific, and have no probable relation whatever. As to the sexual heredity of moles in general, I could not connect them with either parent in particular; the mother being as often affected as the father, and the daughters and sons partook of the abnormality promiscuously. With reference to 11 leucodermic marks." These were often covered with white hairs on swarthy-skinned persons, also mulattos and half-castes. They were often seen on the genital organs and pubes, and less frequently on the front of the chest, back, and hips. Several asserted to have observed their own condition in relatives. All were indisputably congenital; and frequently persons with dark skins and light-blue or grey irides had paler coloured patches on certain regions, and the hair was invariably the same colour as the patch. In one instance a man, aged twentyfive, had a dark, swarthy skin and light-blue irides, with a bare leucodermic patch on the belly, and a white tuft of hair on the pubes. The hair on the head was prematurely grey, which he said was a family state. In another there was bronzed skin, in great splashes, on the trunk; none on the lower extremities, nor on the hands and arms and face. All had been disappearing steadily for several years. Present age nineteen. Another had light-brown splash on the abdomen, surrounding islands of natural-coloured skin; there were smaller patches of the same sort in the armpits. Large oblong black mole on the back of right forearm. Face and throat bronzed. His mother and her brother were similarly marked, but only as regards the bronze colour. He has one sister not marked. His mother has married again, * Tae LANCET, 180, pp. 862 and 960.