HEALTH NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3280, 24 January 1917, Page 62

HEALTH NOTES.

PSORIASIS. Xo amateur need Jiojx- to tackle effectively ilio treatment ot psoriasis, lor tiio problems which ariso are lit to puzzle an experienced physician, and the drugs which do most good are poisons in dangerous closes. At one time arsenic was reckoned the only ••cure," but, as arsenic, pushed even to the verge of grave symptoms, will sometimes fail to produce any curative effect, it became necessary to find alternatives, and thyroid extract, salicin, iodide of potassium, phosphorus., antimony, mercury, tjuinine, turpentine, and carbolic acid wero used with good results in certain cases. All of these are agents only to be employed by exports. One regrets the fact that this is so, for psoriasis is essentially a slow malady, and treatment becomes expensive; but safety demands a physician. Ji, however, the case is once under way, and he knows how the drug or drugs aro borne, his attention need only be sought at long intervals. Jiut one does not speak of curing psoriasis now. The best that can be done in treatment is to secure a eh an skin for the patient, and warn him that in some months or a year or a few years he may expect his unsightly eruption to reappear. Thus the medical profession can fall in and declare with one voice: "We may say that, up to the present, we have never heard definitely the cause, let alone the cure, of this toiti- — Various Ideas. — The weight of scientiiic opinion inclines towards the belief that a microbe is responsible for the production of the disease; but nobody has succeeded in isolating tho particular germ. Yet the germ must bo widely distributed, lor few skin disease aro •as common as psoriasis. One authority reckons it " the second most common. disease in private practice." But a certain quality of soil (the blood or body of tho patient) seems necessary before the microbe can establish itself and multiply sufficiently to produce symptoms. Tins theory explains three facts about the disease. First, the fact that in many cases yon can find grounds for believing the malady hereditary; a parent or grandparent or child of the patient suffered or suffers from it; and yet not all, indeed but few, of the family of a psoriasis patient develop the disease, as it the ideal soil were only present, rarely. Secondly, tho fact that, though the disease ought to bo communicated like other microbic diseases from one patient to another, and though (as one scientist actually demonstrated m Ins own person) it may with difficulty be made to exhibit a certain degree of contagiousness, the average individual (because he docs not provide the soil) cannot in ordinary intercourse and through the usual avenues of infection ooutract the disease. Thirdly, the fact that a permanent cure seems beyond the reach ot practical medicine, either because the soil of the patient is so kindly to the germ that no severity in treatment, no most searching poison, can rid every nook and cranny of his system of spores capable of asserting themselves when time has cleansed the tissues of the hateful drug, or because (as is more likely) the gracious soil inevitably receives again a sufficiency of the prevalent germs io grow the old, familiar crop of spots. The disease has iis favourite areas of tho body-surface, and it chooses to adorn these with spots arranged fairly symmetrically. Thus vou may find both knees, and often both elbows, front of the knees, and back of the elbows, where the skin is naturally thicker and harder, set with patches of eruption. The spots know no law in regard to their size.' 'i hoy may be pin-head or as big as a crownpicce; but common sizes would represent threepenny-bits, sixpences, and shillings. And tho representation is very perfect, for, while each spot of psoriasis looks like a red tiddley-wmks counter, the red, glazed, raised disc is covered by a glistening, silvery, scaly, flattened scab as if a clean new coin wero laid upon the red counter. Sometimes tho scales are dulled and dirtied, sometimes tho crust is broken or thinned or incomplete, and the base more exposed, and sometimes the shape of the base departs considerably from the ideal disc; but once one grasps the essential features of the eruption and rea.lis s that tho disease is quite compatible with robust health (though debility may make the spots multiply and invade almost any region of the surface—conduct also to bo expected in cases where the disease is likely to be obstinate) recognition is easy. Itching is not always present. A specialist states that "in gouty and alcoholic patients . . . the irritation may bo very pronounced." Some Hints.— Vegetarianism will neither prevent nor cure the complaint, but a diminution in I lie consumption of animal food or abstinence in that respect (particularly from red meats) is often productive of improvement, and aids other treatment. Then baths aro of use. A long spell of soaking in warm or hot water, no baking soda or other chemical being added, followed by tho application of soft soap and scrubbing with a nail-brush, is a good preparation for the application of the ointments or paints which hasten tho good work done by (hugs .-wallowed. One of the best applications is Dreuw's paste of salicylic ncid, 10 parts; chrysarobin and beech-tar, of each 20 parts; soft soap and lanoline, of each 25 parts. It is rubbed in twice daily for five days exactly to the spots, covered with oiled silk held by strapping, and then for two days vaseline is applied. Like chrysarobin ointment, tho classical salvo for psoriasis, tins paste stains clothing.