VERRUC.E (WARTS! By verrucm we designate a benign circumscribed keratosis which is accompanied by an elongation of the papilhe and which is probably infectious. In children we distinguish verruca vulgaris and verruca plans, juvenilis.
Verruca vulgaris is: a hard; flat or raised, coarse eminence of the skin which slowly grows larger and has a rough and ragged surface; it is roundish in shape and generally of a somewhat grayish color. The ordinary wart may occur singly or in groups at the hands, fingers and scalp; very often only one wart appears first and after some time sev eral new one, may appear simultaneously (yerrue mere et verrues fines).
Verruca' plena' juveniles are round or polygonal flat eminences from pinhead to lentil size, which grow either singly or occasionally become confluent, have a yellowish or brownish color and in contrast to ordinary warts can be ea.sily scratched off. They are u.sually sit uated in the face and on the hands and are sometimes present in exceedingly large quantities.
Pathological hyperkeratosis and hyperplasia of the rete, elongation and broadening of the cones, elongation of the papillie.
the work of Variot, Licht, and Jaclassohn, the transmissibility of warts from one skin to another has been dem onstrated. The length of the incubation period lasts from 5 weeks to s months, and this surprising length of time is probably the reason why the demonstration of their transmissibility has been so long retarded, although popular belief has always asserted the same.
Treatment.—Arsenic may cause warts to disappear, especially the juvenile form. In a number of nty cases this treatment has been thoroughly successful, in others it was a complete failure, a fact for which I am linable to account. Foulard has seen successful treatment with 1 Gm. (15 grains) magnesia per day, while others author praise the efficacy of tincture of Thuja ;P.G.) (10 to 50 drops gradually increas ing; caution! clanger of poisoning!).
For local treatment, especially of single ordinary warts trichloride acetic acid or 10 per cent. subl. collodium, or galvanocautery may be applied, unless it is thought preferable to treat the warts by electrolysis. (Needle negative pole, piercing with the same in all directions, current 1 to 5 M.A., duration of each perforation 1 to 2 minutes; positive pole in the other hand.) Successes which are said to have attended the suggestive treatment of warts, ete., have still to be verified, although such have frequently been reported.