[Rx] Resorcini ............................ [dram]j-[dram]iss. Ol. ricini ........................... [minim]xxx-f[dram]ij. Alcoholis ............................ f[Oz]iv. M.
Carbolic acid, to the amount of ten to thirty grains, can be added to this. If an aqueous lotion is desirable, then in the above formula the oleum ricini is replaced with glycerine, and the alcohol with water; three to five minims of glycerine in each ounce is usually sufficient, as a greater quantity makes the resulting lotion sticky. Petrolatum alone, or with 10 to 30 per cent. lanolin, is usually the most satisfactory base for the ointments. In some cases of the inflammatory variety the skin is found quite irritable, and the mildest applications are at first only admissible.
A small quantity of the lotion, ointment, or oil is gently applied to the skin; when to the scalp, a lotion or oil can be conveniently applied by means of an eye-dropper. In the beginning of the treatment an application once or twice daily is ordered; later, as the disease becomes less active, once every second or third day.
#How is seborrh[oe]a upon other parts to be treated?#
In the same general manner as seborrh[oe]a of the scalp, except that the local applications must be somewhat weaker. The several sulphur lotions employed in the treatment of acne (_q. v._) may also be used when the disease is upon these parts. In obstinate patchy cases occasional paintings with a 20 to 50 per cent alcoholic solution of resorcin is curative; following the painting a mild salve should be used.
#Comedo.# (_Synonyms:_ Blackheads; Flesh-worms.)
Comedo is a disorder of the sebaceous glands, characterized by yellowish or blackish pin-point or pin-head-sized puncta or elevations corresponding to the gland-orifices.
#At what age and upon what parts are comedones found?#
Usually between fifteen and thirty, and upon the face and upper part of the trunk, where they may exist sparsely or in great numbers. They are occasionally associated with oily seborrh[oe]a, the parts presenting a greasy or soiled appearance.
Exceptionally they occur as distinct, and usually symmetrical, groups upon the forehead or the cheeks. On the upper trunk so-called double and multiple comedo have been noted--the two, three, or even four closely-contiguous blackheads are, beneath the surface, intercommunicable, the dividing duct-walls having apparently disappeared by fusion.