“Blackheads” appear as slightly elevated black points, sometimes having a yellowish tint from which a little, thin, wormlike mass may be pressed. Pimples and blackheads are both due to inflammation about the glands of the skin which secrete oily material; the mouths of the glands become plugged with dust, thus retaining the oily secretion and causing blackheads. Then if these glands are invaded by germs producing pus, we have a pimple, which usually results in the formation of matter as described above. Constipation and indigestion favor the occurrence of pimples and blackheads; also a poor state of the blood, or anæmia.

Treatment. Tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol should be avoided, together with veal, pork, fats, and cheese. The bowels must be moved daily by some proper cathartic, as cascara tablets containing two grains each of the extract. The dose is one to two tablets at night. The blackheads should be squeezed out with a watch key, or with an instrument made for the purpose, not finger nails, and pimples containing matter must be emptied after being pricked with a needle (which has been passed through a flame to kill germs on it). If there is redness of the skin and irritation associated with pimples, it is sufficient to bathe the skin with very hot water and green soap three times daily, and apply calamine lotion at night. In other cases, when the skin is not sensitive, and zinc or mercury has not been used, the employment of sulphur soap and hot water at bedtime, allowing the suds to dry and remain on the face during the night, is to be recommended. An ointment consisting of half a dram of precipitated sulphur with half an ounce each of powdered starch and vaseline applied each night, and hot water used on the face three times daily are also efficacious. Sulphur lotion is better than sulphur ointment.

Related posts:

• RINGWORM OF THE BODY; RINGWORM OF THE SCALP

Treatment. Prevention of tan and freckles is secured through nonexposure of the unprotected skin to the sun, though it is doubtful whether the end gained is worth the sacrifice, if carried so far as to the avoidance of the open air and sunlight whenever possible.

Boric acid (sixteen grains to the ounce of water) is an absolutely harmless and serviceable agent for the removal of skin pigmentations. The skin may be freely bathed with it night and morning. Corrosive sublimate is the most effective remedy, but is exceedingly poisonous if swallowed accidentally, and must be kept out of children’s way, and should not be applied over any large or raw surface of skin or on any mucous membrane. Its application is inadvisable as soon as any irritation of the skin appears from its use. The following preparation containing it is to be painted on the skin with a camel’s hair brush, night and morning:

POISONOUS SUBLIMATE SOLUTION

Corrosive sublimate 7 grains Alcohol 1 1/2 ounces Glycerin 1 1/2 ” Oil of lavender 10 drops

Mix.

The following lotion is also efficacious:

Zinc oxide 30 grains Powdered starch 30 ” Kaolin 60 ” Glycerin 2 drams Rose water 2 ounces

Mix.

DIRECTIONS. Shake and paint on spots, and allow the preparation to dry; wash it off before each fresh application.

It is best to use only cold water, rarely soap, on the healthy skin of the face. Warm water favors relaxation of the skin and formation of wrinkles.

Related posts:

• CALLUS AND CRACKS OF THE SKIN
• CHAFING AND CHAPPING
• ITCHING (Pruritus)

It may not, however, be improper to suggest means to relieve such a source of suffering as is itching, although unscientific, with the clear understanding that a cure cannot always be expected, but relief may be obtained until proper medical advice can be secured. The treatment to be given will be appropriate for itching due to any cause, with or without existing eruption on the skin, unless otherwise specified. If one remedy is unsuccessful, try others.

For itching afflicting a considerable portion of the skin, baths are peculiarly effective. Cold shower baths twice daily, or swimming in cold water at the proper time of year, may be tried, but tepid or lukewarm baths are generally more useful. The addition of saleratus or baking soda, one to two pounds to the bath, is valuable, or bran water obtained by boiling bran tied in a bag in water, and adding the resulting solution to the bath. Even more efficient is a bath made by dissolving half a cupful of boiled starch and one tablespoonful of washing or baking soda in four gallons of warm water. The tepid baths should be as prolonged as possible, without chilling the patient. The bran water, or starch water, may be put in a basin and sopped on the patient with a soft linen or cotton cloth and allowed to evaporate from the skin, without rubbing, but while the skin is still moist a powder composed of boric acid, one part, and pulverized starch, four parts, should be dusted on the itching area.

Household remedies of value include saleratus or baking soda (one teaspoonful to the pint of cold water), or equal parts of alcohol, or vinegar and water, which are used to bathe the itching parts and then permitted to dry on them. Cold solution of carbolic acid (one teaspoonful to the pint of hot water) is, perhaps, the most efficacious single remedy. But if it causes burning it must be washed off at once. Dressings wet with it must never be allowed to become dry, as then the acid becomes concentrated and gangrene may result. Calamine lotion is also a serviceable preparation when there is redness and swelling of the skin. When the itching is confined to small areas, or due to a pimply or scaly eruption on the skin, the following ointments may be tried: a mixture of tar ointment and zinc ointment (two drams each) with four drams of cold cream, or flowers of sulphur, one part, and lard, twelve parts.

Related posts:

• PRICKLY HEAT (Miliaria)
• COLD SORE; FEVER BLISTER
• IVY POISON

Carbuncle often begins, with a chill and fever, as a pimple, and rapidly increases in size forming a hot, dusky red, rounded lump which may grow until it is from three to six inches in diameter. Occasionally it runs a mild course, remains small, and begins to discharge pus and dead tissue at the end of a week and heals rapidly. More commonly the pain soon becomes intense, of a burning, throbbing character, and the carbuncle continues to enlarge for a week or ten days, when it softens and breaks open at various points discharging shreds of dead tissue and pus. The skin over the whole top of the carbuncle dies and sloughs away, leaving an angry looking excavation or crater like ulcer. This slowly heals from the edges and bottom, so that the whole period of healing occupies from a week to two, or even six months. The danger depends largely upon blood poisoning, and also upon pain, continuous fever, and exhaustion which follow it. Sweating and fever, higher at night, are the more prominent signs of blood poisoning.

Carbuncles differ from boils in being much larger, in having rounded or flat tops instead of the conical shape of boils, in having numerous, sievelike openings, in the occurrence of death of the skin over the top of the carbuncle, and in being accompanied by intense pain and high fever.

Treatment. Carbuncle demands the earliest incision by a skilled surgeon, as it is only by cutting it freely open, or even removing the whole carbuncle as if it were a tumor, that the best results are accomplished. However, when a surgeon cannot be obtained, the patient’s strength should be sustained by feeding every two hours with beef tea, milk and raw eggs, and with wine or alcoholic liquors. Three two grain quinine pills and ten drops of the tincture of the chloride of iron in water should be given three times daily.

The local treatment consists in applying large, hot, fresh flaxseed poultices frequently, with the removal of all dead tissue with scissors, which have been boiled in water for ten minutes. When the pain is not unbearable, dressings made by soaking thick sheets of absorbent cotton in hot solution of corrosive sublimate (1 to 1,000 as directed under Boils) should be applied and covered by oil silk or rubber cloth and bandage. They are preferable to poultices as being better germ destroyers, but are not so comfortable. When the dead tissue comes away and the carbuncle presents a red, raw surface, it should be washed twice a day in the 1 to 1,000 corrosive sublimate solution, dusted with pure boric acid, and covered with clean, dry absorbent cotton and bandage.

Related posts:

• Patent Medicines

Scratching alters the character of the eruption, and causes red, raw marks and crusts, but the ordinary swellings can be seen usually in some part of the body. Rarely, the eruption comes in the throat and leads to sudden and sometimes dangerous swelling, so that suffocation has ensued. With hives there are no fever, sore throat, backache, headache, which are common to the contagious eruptive disorders, as measles, scarlet fever, etc.

Indigestion is the most frequent cause. Certain articles of diet are almost sure to bring on an attack of hives in susceptible persons; these include shellfish, clams, lobsters, crabs, rarely oysters; also oatmeal, buckwheat cakes, acid fruits, particularly strawberries, but sometimes raspberries and peaches. Nettlerash is common in children, and may follow any local irritation of the skin caused by rough clothes, bites of mosquitoes and fleas, and the stings of jellyfish, Portuguese man of war, and nettles.

Treatment. Remove any source of irritation in the digestive canal, or externally, and employ a simple diet for a few days, as bread and milk.

A dose of castor oil, one teaspoonful for children; one tablespoonful for adults, or some other cathartic is advisable. Locally we use, as domestic remedies, a saturated solution of baking soda (or saleratus) in water, or equal parts of alcohol or vinegar and water to relieve the itching. The bath containing soda and starch is the most useful treatment when the nettlerash is general. Calamine lotion is one of the best applications which can be employed for this disorder. It should be sopped on frequently with a soft cloth and allowed to dry on the skin.

CALAMINE LOTION

Zinc oxide 1/4 ounce Powdered calamine 1/4 ” Limewater 6 ounces

Mix and shake before applying to the skin.

If choking is threatened, give an emetic of mustard, one teaspoonful, and warm water, half a pint.

Related posts:

• DIPHTHERIA

Treatment. The treatment of prickly heat, occurring in hot weather, consists in avoiding heat as much as possible and sponging the surface with cold water, and then dusting it with some simple powder, as starch or flour, or better, borated talcum. To relieve the itching, sponging with limewater or a saturated solution of baking soda (as much as will dissolve) in water, or bran baths, made by tying one pound of bran in a towel which is allowed to soak in the bath, are all good remedies.

Related posts:

• Headache from Heat Stroke
• BOILS
• CALLUS AND CRACKS OF THE SKIN

Seed Warts. These have numerous, little, fleshy projections over their surface, which are enlarged normal structures ( papillæ ) of the middle layer of the skin, together with the thickened, outer, horny layer.

Threadlike Warts. These are seen along the edge of the nails, on the face, neck, eyelids, and ears. They are formed by the great prolongation and growth of the projections, or papillæ of the middle layer of the skin just described.

Flat Warts , raised but slightly above the surface are more common in old people.

Moist Warts occur where they are softened by secretions of the body, as about the sexual organs (in connection with diseases of the same), and about the anus (or opening of the bowel). They are of a white, pink, or red color, and consist of numerous, little, fleshy projections, usually covered with a foul smelling secretion.

Warts most commonly appear on the hands of children, but may appear on any part of the body and at all ages. They may disappear quickly or remain indefinitely. They are not communicable from one person to another.

Treatment. Warts may be removed by painting them frequently with the fresh juice of the milkweed, or with acetic acid or tincture of iodine. These remedies are all harmless, but somewhat slow and not always effective. Application, morning and evening, of a saturated solution of “washing soda” (impure bicarbonate of potash) will often remove a wart.

Related posts:

• Cancer of the breast
• TUMORS

(1) Eczema of internal origin, including cases due to morbid agencies produced within the body, cases due to drugs, and possibly reflex cases.

(2) Eczema of external origin, including cases caused by occupation, by climate, or by seborrhea.

Eczema of internal origin almost invariably appears on both sides of the body at once, as on both cheeks, or both arms, or both thighs. Its border shades into the surrounding skin, it is dotted with papules (or heads) filled with fluid, and its surface is clean and not greasy. As it spreads, the symmetry of distribution is lost. Among the morbid agencies producing this variety of eczema are the products of indigestion. Among the drugs producing it is cod liver oil.

Occupation eczema occurs first on exposed parts, as the hands, arms, face, and neck, in those who handle irritant dyes, sugar, formalin, etc.

Climatic eczema includes the “winter itch,” common in this latitude, appearing on wrists and ankles in the form of clean, scaly patches, often ringed.

The seborrheic variety spreads from the scalp to the folds of the skin. Its borders are sharply defined, and its crusts and scales yellowish and greasy. It spreads from a center in all directions at once.

Treatment. The treatment of eczema puzzles a physician, and only specialists in skin diseases are able easily to diagnose the subacute or chronic forms. It may appear different, and need different treatment almost from day to day, and consequently only general suggestions can be made for home management of a case of this disease.

The outlook is always good; and even in the case of weak and debilitated patients, there is excellent chance of cure.

The diet must be regulated at once. Meat should be eaten in small quantities once a day only, and none but very digestible meats should be eaten, as fowl, beef, and lamb. Sugar and sweet food need be cut down only when there is indigestion with a production of gas. Fresh air and exercise are imperative. Five grains of calomel, at night, followed by one heaped tablespoonful of Rochelle salts dissolved in a full tumbler of water the next morning before breakfast, should be repeated twice a week till marked improvement is seen. Meanwhile, external treatment must be pushed.

Generally speaking, ointments must not be used on weeping or exuding surfaces; all scales and crusts must be removed from the surface; and acute patches must be soothed, chronic patches stimulated. Water is harmful and increases the trouble; but it is necessary to use it once, in cleansing the affected area, in the form of soap and water. If there are thick, adherent crusts, a poultice of boiled starch, covered with a muslin cloth, will loosen them in a night. Thickened or horny layers on the palms and soles may be covered with salicylic plaster (ten per cent strength), which is removed after two days, and the whole part soaked in warm water, when the horny layer is to be peeled off. Thickened surfaces are best treated with wood tar, in the form of oil of cade ointment, or the “pix liquida” of the drug shops mixed with twice its amount of olive oil. This should be well rubbed into the affected part.

Seborrheic eczema of the scalp and neighboring areas is best treated with a four per cent ointment of ammoniated mercury, rubbed in once a day for five days, followed by the application of a solution of resorcin in water, four grains to the ounce. Weeping and exuding patches should be treated with powdered stearate of zinc, or oleate of bismuth, or aristol, either one dusted on till the area is fairly covered. When the surface begins to dry up, the following paste may be applied:

Salicylic acid 5 to 15 grains Zinc oxide 2 drams Powdered starch 2 drams Vaseline 1 ounce

If weeping returns, stop the ointment and resume the powder treatment, or use the following lotion:

Zinc oleate 1 dram Magnesium carbonate 1 dram Ichthyol 1/2 ounce Lime water 4 ounces

When the skin after scaling off becomes thin, all swelling having disappeared, lead plaster is of service, or diachylon ointment twenty five per cent, made with olive oil.

An eczema of moderate extent should recover after four to six weeks’ treatment, unless the soles or palms be attacked, when six or more months of treatment may be necessary.

If itching is pronounced, remove crusts and scabs after soaking with olive oil, dust borax, finely powdered on the surface. If the itching is not controlled in twenty minutes, wipe off the borax with a very oily cloth (using olive oil), and then apply a little solution of carbolic acid (made by adding a half teaspoonful of carbolic acid to a pint of hot water). If this does not allay the itching, wipe it off thoroughly with the oiled cloth, and rub in the tar ointment made of equal parts of “pix liquida” and olive oil. After the itching ceases, treat as directed according to the variety existing. Itching often disappears after a good saline cathartic has acted Rochelle salts, solution of magnesia citrate, or phosphate of soda. Scratching must be avoided. In the case of children it is prevented by putting mittens of muslin on the hands.

The best cathartic for young children is a teaspoonful of castor oil. Carbolic acid solution must not be used on them. The folds and creases of their skin must be kept dry and powdered with borated talcum. A great point in the treatment of all eczema is to avoid the use of water, and to substitute oiling with olive oil and wiping off for the usual washing of the affected area.

Related posts:

• BOILS
• BALDNESS AND DANDRUFF
• VARICOSE VEINS

Treatment. The hands and feet should be soaked continuously in hot baths containing washing soda, and then should be covered with diachylon (or other) ointment. This may be done each night; or collodion (one ounce containing thirty grains of salicylic acid) may be painted, night and morning for several days, on the callus, and then, after soaking for some time in hot water, the surface should be scraped off with a dull knife and the process repeated as often as necessary to effect a cure. Fissure or cracks of the skin caused by callus are treated in the same manner: by prolonged soaking in hot water, paring away the edges, and applying diachylon ointment or cold cream to the part. Inflammation about callus must be cared for as recommended above for inflamed corns.

Related posts:

• CANKER
• FRECKLES, TAN, AND OTHER DISCOLORATIONS OF THE SKIN
• SYPHILIS; THE POX; LUES

Symptoms. On the body, ringworm attacks the face, neck, and hands. It appears first as small, red, scaly spots which may spread into a circular patch as large as a dollar with a red ring of small, scaly pimples on the outside, while the center exhibits healthy skin, or sometimes is red and thickened. There may be several patches of ringworm near each other and they may run together, or there may be only one patch of the disease. Ringworm of the scalp occurs as a circular, scaly patch of a dusty gray or pale red color on which there are stubs of broken hairs pointing in different directions, and readily pulled out. The disease in this locality is very resistant to treatment. There are no crusts or itching as in eczema.

Treatment. The application of pure tincture of iodine or carbolic acid to the spots with a camel’s hair brush, on one or two occasions, will usually cure ringworm on the skin. On the scalp the hairs should be pulled out of the patch of ringworm, and each day it should be washed with soap and water and a solution of boric acid (as much acid as the water can dissolve), destroying the cloth used for washing. The following ointment is then applied: sulphur, one part; tar, two parts; and lard, eight parts. It is desirable to secure the services of a physician in this disease, in which various remedies may have to be tried to secure recovery. If untreated, ringworm is likely to last indefinitely.

Related posts:

• BALDNESS AND DANDRUFF
• Neuralgic Headaches
• Headache from Poisoning