The disease is compatible with perfect health; and even when there was any departure from the normal there was no reason to suppose that the abnormality was in any way connected with the skin lesions, while the majority of the patients had above the average health for their age.
While there appears to be no tendency in the disease to spontaneous involution, they are not, as the case narratives show, altogether rebellious to treatment, and in at least two cases a cure appears to have been effected and in others some improvement, while in a residue no improvement could be noted. The agents which appeared to have a good effect are salicin in 15-grain doses at least three times a day, which by itself entirely cured a recent case (Case 5) of only two months’ duration and of rather acute development, and vasogen iodine 10 per cent. rubbed in is a useful supplement and materially aided in the cure of Case 4. In some cases, salicin has failed to make any marked impression on the lesions, while in others the patient has not gone on with it sufficiently long to test its merits. As might be expected, it has been most successful when the disease has been present for a short time.
The only female case, a lady aged 47 years, resembled the other cases in its gradual evolution, long duration, absence of itching, in the persistence of the old patches with continual evolution of new ones, in its limitation to the covered parts, and in the general good health of the patient. The differences were in the patches being distinctly scaly all over the body; though the scales were small and even powdery in most parts of the body, they were, as usual, rather larger and more abundant on the legs. The patches were also more decidedly red than in the other cases; while there was some spontaneous improvement in the summer, in winter the patches cracked and smarted. This patient, who had been affected with the disease for ten years, had had the most varied drug and spa treatment, including cacodylate of soda injections for three months without any material effect; but after nine exposures to the Röntgen rays, the part exposed entirely cleared up, while the disease was unchanged on the inner side of the leg which the rays had not reached. I intend, therefore, to make use of the rays wherever practicable.