Ulcers are perhaps best treated locally by touching the edges daily with the pencil of sulphate of copper. Any imperfect teeth in their immediate vicinity to which the ulceration may be attributable should be extracted or put in repair. De Mussy's case of eczema was cured after five months' daily use of a large quantity of water-cress.
Glossitis Parasitica.
DEFINITION.—An inflammation of the tongue said to be due to parasitic vegetation.
SYNONYMS.—Nigrities, Glossophytia, Black tongue.
Under the term black tongue two different affections have been described, the one an epidemic erysipelatous disorder to be mentioned under parenchymatous glossitis, and the other, now to be mentioned, a peculiar black pigmentation due to parasitic disease seated upon and around the hypertrophied filiform papillæ. The ordinary parasitic vegetations found upon the tongue do not produce the affection in question.
HISTORY.—First described by H. Hyde Salter,51 and then by Eulenburg, it has been made the subject of observation by Raynaud,52 Fereol and others,53 Lanceraux,54 Dessois,55 Hirz,56 Pasquier,57 Moure,58 and a few others. Outside of French literature, little had been written of it until very recently.
51 Article "Tongue," Encyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology, London, 1849-52, vol. iv. pp. 1159, 1160.
52 Gaz. hebd., 1869, No. 14, p. 221.
53 Gaz. des Hôp., June 29, 1875.
54 Union Méd., March 20, 1877.