Pemphigus (mulatto).
In what respects does the severe form of pemphigus vulgaris differ from the ordinary type?
In the severe or malignant type the eruption is more profuse; there is marked, and often grave, systemic depression, and the lesions are attended with ulcerative action.
Describe the symptoms and course of pemphigus foliaceus.
In this, the grave type of the disease, the blebs are loose and flaccid, with milky or puriform contents, rupturing and drying to crusts, which are cast off, disclosing the reddened corium. New blebs appear on the sites of disappearing or half-ruptured lesions, and the whole surface may be thus involved and the disease continue for years, compromising the general health and eventually ending fatally.
In some cases of pemphigus (pemphigus vegetans) a vegetating or papillomatous condition develops from the base of the lesion, with an offensive discharge; it is usually a grave type of the malady.
Exceptionally cases (dermatitis vegetans) are met with which have a close similarity in their symptoms to pemphigus vegetans, but in which the eruption is more or less limited to the genitocrural region. The disorder is not malignant and usually yields to cleanliness and antiseptics.
What is the character of the subjective symptoms in pemphigus?
The subjective symptoms consist variously of heat, tenderness, pain, burning and itching, and may be slight or troublesome.
What is known in regard to the etiology of pemphigus?