\ Vhatever ointment or other form of application made from any of the agents mentioned in the above list is employed, it should only be used after prolonged soaking of the skin in a warm bath to remove the accumu lation of dead epithelial scales. Their removal may be hastened by the hair-brush with or without the aid of Green Soap, Borax or Sodium Bicarbonate. The patient after brisk rubbing with a towel to dry the skin should remain rolled up in a thin blanket for several minutes till the cuticle loses its retained moisture, after which the ointment should be well rubbed in.
The chief cause of failure in the treatment is owing to the cessation of the applications before the diseased patches have been entirely eradicated . This is even the case when the more radical method of general inunction by Chrysarobin ointment has been carried out. After the patient begins to go about his usual work he should be directed to inspect his skin every day, and all suspicious spots should be rubbed with the salve-stick of chrysarobin or any of the stronger ointments already mentioned, the treated patch being bandaged or covered over with rubber plaster or traumaticin.
There is no end to the fommke recommended for the treatment of psoriasis, as every known antiseptic or antiparasitic agent has been vaunted from time to time, and the young physician will be wise who selects any one remedy and adheres to its use till he becomes a thorough master of its action, instead of flying from one preparation to another. By this way alone he will become familiar with the conditions which indicate an increase or diminution of the strength of the preparation which he is employing, as in the treatment of chronic eczema, which is vitiated by the perplexing multiplicity of its unnecessarily complicated formula.
There remains one other agent to be mentioned; in former editions of the present work the use of electricity in the forms of the constant, inter rupted and static currents was mentioned; now the high-frequency current and the X rays are advocated. The latter but for its dangers would be an ideal treatment for psoriasis of the scalp; at present its use should be confined to very obstinate patches on the body. Radium emanation has also given good results.