WART, a papillary new-growth of the skin, or mucous mem brane. The ordinary flat warts of the skin occur mostly upon the hands of children and young persons; a long pendulous variety occurs about the chin or neck, and on the scalp in adults. Warts are apt to come out in numbers at a time; a crop of them suddenly appears, to disappear after a time with equal suddenness Hence the supposed efficacy of charms. A single wart will sometimes remain when the general eruption has vanished. In adult life a wart on the hands or fingers is usually brought on by some irritation, often repeated, even if it be slight. Warts often occur on the wrists and knuckles of slaughter-house men and of those much occupied with anatomical dissection ; they are often of tuberculous origin (butchers' warts). Chimney-sweeps and workers in coal-tar, petroleum, X-rays, etc., are subject to warts, which often become cancerous. Warts occur singly in later life on the nose or lips or other parts of the face, sometimes on the tongue ; they are apt to become malignant especially if subjected to repeated irritation by attempts at their removal. Towards old age broad and flattened
patches of warts of a greasy consistence and brownish colour often occur on the back and shoulders. They also are apt to become malignant. Indeed, warts occurring on the lip or tongue, or on any part of the body of a person advanced in life, should be suspected of malignant associations and dealt with accordingly. Venereal warts occur as the result of gonorrhoeal irritation or syphilitic infection.
The treatment of warts needs very careful consideration, and rarely, if ever, should be undertaken by a non-medical person, since, unfortunately, local applications of various kinds to warts have in many instances been accountable for their passage from a mere unsightly excrescence to an indubitable cancer.