ALOPECIA AREATA.—In the treatment of this condition one set of authorities, considering the disease to be of nerve origin, recommends remedies for improving the general health and tone of the nervous system in particular, as Iron, Strychnine, Arsenic, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Massage, &c., with generous diet of fats, phosphates, crushed wheat and fish, and the local application of the Faradic or Continuous Current, Hypodermics of Pilocarpine, and the host of rubefacients from Oil of Mustard, Can tha rides and Croton Oil to Iodine. Every remedy useful in ordinary sebor rheeic baldness has its advocates, but the majority of observers agree that Vesication affords the best results, and it does not seem to matter much how the blistering is effected.
Other dermatologists believe that the disease is parasitic, and they recommend that remedies to be effective must be germicidal; consequently nearly every agent valuable in ringworm has its advocates, and the litera ture of the subject has become more extensive than the disease appears to justify.
Ultra-Violet and X Rays have given marked results, and several cases have been cured by the High-Frequency Current.
A 3 per cent. Solution of Creolin is applied to the entire scalp by 0.-Dumesnil, and to the patches he rubs in a r gr. per oz. Sublimate Oint ment. Leistikow applies a 23 per cent. Chrysarobin Stick. Many
authorities apply pure Carbolic Acid to the patch, and some speak strongly of the value of Iodized Collodion, Oils of Cade, Wintergreen, and Cinnamon, and i per cent. Ointment of Biniodide of Mercury, and resol. ('rocker succeeds best with I to 5 grs. Sublimate, i dr. Spirit, and drs. Turpentine or 01. Pini Sylvestris. Walker recommends a lotion con taining 5-to per cent. Lactic Acid with Castor Oil in Alcohol.
A study of the effects of these various anti-parasitic remedies shows that the best results are constantly obtained by those agents which cause the most irritation.
Liq. Ilyd. Pernit. lightly brushed the spot often succeeds; the writer has seen better results from painting over the patches with strong Sulphurous Acid than from any other treatment, save constant blistering with Liquor Epispasticus. The rare form of baldness produced by Folliculitis decalvans is best treated by epilation of any remaining hairs, after which the scalp should be thoroughly washed and Tr. Iod. Fort. applied repeatedly or a weak ointment of Iodide of Sulphur rubbed in. When the parasitic organisms have been destroyed a Cantharidin pre paration should he used to excite stimulation of the atrophied hair bulbs, but the baldness is often permanent in spite of all treatment.