Page:Archives of dermatology, vol 6.djvu/131

 REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 119

phases), leucoderma, chromophytosis (tinea versicolor), favus, ulcers, and psoriasis. As stated when reviewing Parts I. and II., the pictures are reproduced by the Artotype process, from actual photographs of cases.

Some of these plates are excellent and could hardly be improved upon, such as that of fibroma, chromophytosis (tinea versicolor), and some of the pictures of infantile eczema. Some of the pic- tures, however, fall far short of what might be desired, both as artistic productions and for clinical study; thus the portrait of zoster in a child and that of eczema universale, and also some others, are really poorly-taken photographs. The coloring in these parts is less objectionable than in the first two, but with a few exceptions the tinting still fails to give the correct idea.

We must take exception to some of the nomenclature : thus, the most perfect of all the plates, namely, that of tinea versicolor, has the name ^^ chromophytosis.^' Nor is there any indication on the picture or in the text to suggest that the eruption ever had any other name than this, and yet, beyond the members of the New York Dermatological Society, few, if any, have ever met with the name before, and it certainly cannot be found in any dictionary or treatise on diseases of the skin, as it was a recent creation of one of the members of that association. While the term tinea (or pityriasis) versicolor may be inappropriate, we must carefully avoid intro- ducing any elements into the study of dermatology which could cloud the subject, especially in an atlas designed for students and practitioners but little acquainted with this branch. Many would also be puzzled to know why the eruption of the child represented in the first picture of Part V. was called eczema infantile, while that of the infant in the third i^late was called eczema piistulosiwi, and a precisely similar eruption on another child pictured on the same plate is called eczema ichorosum, and again the same form of the disease is shown on the legs in Part IV. as eczema cruris. If this latter is eczema cruris, the former are cases of eczema capitis. These points are called attention to because the reader with but little acquaint- ance with the subject would think that there were as many varieties of the disease as there were names given, and unless things are made very clear in dermatology misunderstanding will surely result. The letter-press is well written, and most of the directions for treatment are such as should guide any reader to a successful issue in cases which were amenable to treatment ; though of course the entire subject cannot be treated in such a work as this, and other study is required.