ZOSTER ATYPICUS GAXGRZENOSUS ET HYSTERICUS.—Kaposi noted a peculiar form of recurring herpes in a number of cases reported by him to which he gave this name. Three of the subjects were women and one was a man. In all dis tinct symptoms of hysteria were present. In each case the eruption consisted of vesicles and papules gathered in groups. A central crust formed in each vesicle and about it there developed a number of tiny pustules. A number of the lesions coalesced, and gangrene of the part followed. After separation of the slough and healing by granulation had taken place, keloid formed in many of the cicatrices. The period of develop ment lasted for about eight days, when subsidence began to take place. Both sides of the body were affected and in all but one case a number of recurrences took place.
Diagnosis.—The recognition of herpes zoster does not usually present any great difficulty. The severity and peculiar
character of the pain, the grouping of the large, firm vesicles upon an erythem atous base, the lesions running •their course without rupturing, and the com mon limitation of the trouble to one side of the body and in the line of some cutaneous nerve are the distinctive feat ures that differentiate the disease.
At times HERPES SIMPLEX assumes some of the severer features of zoster, or the zostcr may he so mild that its mani festations partake of the benign nature of the simple disease, in either of which cases some difficulty may be experienced in determining the true nature of the disorder. This, however, is but a matter of little moment so far as treatment or prognosis is concerned. It but empha sizes the close relationship of the two affections.