Page:Archives of dermatology, vol 6.djvu/420

 4o8 TRANSACTIONS OF THE

Wigglesworth, and scleroderma,* by Dr. Van Harlingen. A curious observation was made by Dr. Taylor in the case of a man suffering from tinea versicolor, who had been taking iodide of potassium, and whose patches of disease manifested a blue color, from the excreted iodine acting upon a stiffly starched shirt worn next to the skin during intensely hot weather.f

Several papers on purpura rheumatica, by Hardaway,| Kinnicntt,§ Munde,|| and the writer,^ which appeared about this time, may also be recorded. A peculiarity of the cases reported by the writer was that both the lesions and the constitutional symptoms simulated syphilis. I well recall one of the cases, the wife of a physician, where the eruption consisted of disseminated, rosy, maculo papular lesions without positive signs of hemorrhage, presenting a picture which resembled the maculo-pajjular syphiloderm so closely that on the first examination it was deemed prudent to withhold the diagnosis.

In looking over the medical work of our Army and Navy, as found in the publications of these governmental departments and in the medical journals, one cannot fail to be impressed with the paucity of dermatological observations. Only at long intervals do we encounter such communications. A noteworthy example is found in a volume of medical essays compiled from reports to the bureau of medicine and surgery, published in this year.** Dr. Browne con- tributes here a short but interesting paper on verrugas, which he states is a disease strictly limited to Peru, and in particular to the beautiful and picturesque valley of the Rimac River, where it has existed for centuries. The district extends from latitude 6° south to 15° south, at an altitude of from 4000 to 7000 feet in the Andean valleys situated on the seaside. In the valleys of the eastern slope, on the side of the Amazon, we are told that the disease is absent, but that here goitre exists.

In another communication, **on some of the diseases and pecu- liarities of the Pacific islands," Dr. Browne calls attention to a peculiarity of the natural skin of some of these islanders, to which I may refer. He says, " In the Pacific islands the native population differ so much in complexion and smoothness of skin that they may almost be said to be divided into three different classes, — those of the southern, middle, and the northern islands. In the south, repre- sented by Fiji, New Zealand, and Navigator Islands (called Papuans, and generally believed to have gone from Papua), they are very dark and have very rough skins. This roughness of the skin is believed by many to be typical, and I would believe from my own experience that what is said may be true, a blind man might distinguish them by this peculiarity alone."

St. Louis Med. and Surg. Jour., March, 1872. Archives of Dermatology, v«l. i. No. 3 (1875). Amer. Jour, of Obst., Aug. 1874. Phila. Med. Times, vol. ii., 1872-73. ** Washington.
 * Amer. Jour, of Syph. and Derm.. Oct. 1873. f Ibid., April, 1873.