After reviewing shortly the theories at present put forward for the production of colliquative bullæ, Kreibich enters into great detail in the description of his experiments. He finds evidence that in Zoster hystericus there is an acute œdema consisting of fibrinous exudation which enters into the cells and causes their necrosis without separating them from their deep attachments. By irritating the same part three times running with the poison of urtica urens Kreibich was able to produce a colliquative vesicle, since the œdematous process then reached to the papillary body. Similar is the pathogenesis of true herpes zoster and in all probability of hydroa vacciniforme. To sum up the results of the investigation he states that “Colliquative bullæ are found in processes which are allied to urticaria but differ from this in the greater duration of the vascular lesion and by its situation in the papillary body. The colliquation of the epithelium is produced by the action of an exudation rich in fibrin on the epithelial cells, which have suffered in their nutrition but which have maintained their connection with the cutis. The disturbance of nutrition is a combined result of the vascular lesion, the pressure of the exudation, and the resultant anæmia.”
A. W.
FORMALIN AND ITS ACTION ON FAVUS MOULD. Bogrow and Scharkewitsch-Scharschinsk. (Derm. Zeitschr., Bd. xi, Heft 5, p. 329.)
This is the record of careful investigations of the action of formalin on the achorion, both culturally and on the diseased scalp. The results show the absolute futility of using formalin in a watery solution, but the authors think that further work on the action of spirituous solutions and vapour is desirable.
A. W.
ON A CASE OF ERYTHEMA NODOSUM OF UNUSUAL COURSE AND ATYPICAL LOCALISATION. Einis. (Derm. Zeitschr., Bd. xi, Heft 7. p. 493.)
A little boy, aged 2-1/2 years, was brought up with four slightly raised swellings, two, each as large as a half-crown, being situated symmetrically on the cheeks, and two, each as large as a sixpence, on the temples.
The history showed that exactly a year before the child had suffered from a similar eruption on the lower legs, and the doctor who treated the child for former attacks identified the eruption with the fresh one. The peculiarity in the course showed itself in the access of colour and pain in the nodes every day about noon, though there was no fever, and the child seemed to be in very good health with the exception of a few swollen sub-maxillary glands.
A. W.
SEVERAL CASES OF ATROPHY OF THE SKIN. Alexander. (Derm. Zeitschr., Bd. xi, Heft 5, p. 338.)