Psorospermosis follicularis cutis : a clinical lecture, delivered at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, October 8, 1890 / by L. Duncan Bulkley.

  • Bulkley, Lucius Duncan, 1845-1928.
Date:
1890
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Psorospermosis follicularis cutis : a clinical lecture, delivered at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, October 8, 1890 / by L. Duncan Bulkley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    lO maladies, which are quite distinct from the present one, and from each other, in their clinical features. So marked are these microscopical characters that Darier has pro- posed the name psorosperms cutan'ees to designate the group in which they should be placed. The first of these diseases* is the so-called molluscum contagiosum with which all are familiar. This disease Neisser,^ Darier, and others cited by them, believe to be due to the presence in the epithelial cells of similar parasites— the so called “ molluscous bodies” which have long been known; these resemble in a certain degree the psoro- sperms already described, and are thought to be identical or at least analogous to them. These curious round bodies have also been found by Darier, Wickham^ and others, in that peculiar form of epithelioma of the nipple known as Paget’s disease; and Darier further states that Malassez, in 1876, noticed in a large number of epithelial tumors, cellular bodies, granular or refracting, sometimes encapsuled, which pre- sented certain analogies to the psorosperms of the rab- bit,” and that Cornil has reported having seen analogous organisms in certain cancers of the uterus. Here, then, lies the real interest in the study of the dis- ease before us, as well as the important and practical ele- ment previously alluded to ; namely, the possible results which may come from a thorough investigation and knowledge of the effects in the tissues of an order of para- sites, the psorosperms, which have been hitherto unrecog- nized—if, indeed, the assumption is correct that the three maladies in question are really caused thereby. And you will readily see, that if the observations in regard to epithelioma are correct a great step has been taken in the direction of discovering the cause of cancer. It 1 Viertelj. fiir Derm, und Syph., 1888, p. 558. 2 Comptes rendus, Congr^s Internal, de Derm, et de Syph., Paris, 1890, p. 385.