Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [523]
and aural mucosa were all involved. The skin felt warm, and pressure did not influence the discoloration. The pains complained of were of an intermittent, burning, shooting character, chiefly in the epigastric and left lumbar regions. The general health was good, and motion and sensation were normal. Nothing abnormal was discovered in connection with the abdominal and thoracic examinations. The pains and discoloration had commenced two years before his admission, since which time the skin had been deepening in tint. He remained under observation for three months without obvious change in his symptoms. There was nothing in the patient's occupation to account for the discoloration. A year and a half previously he had taken medicine for his pains, but its nature could not be discovered. He had had syphilis.
Galtier mentions congenital and bronze spots of the skin. A man born in Switzerland the latter part of the last century, calling himself Joseph Galart, attracted the attention of the curious by exhibiting himself under the name of the "Living Angel." He presented the following appearance: The skin of the whole posterior part of the trunk, from the nape of the neck to the loins, was of a bronze color. This color extended over the shoulders and the sides of the neck, and this part was covered with hairs of great fineness and growing very thick; the skin of the rest of the body was of the usual whiteness. Those parts were the darkest which were the most covered with hair; on the back there was a space of an inch in diameter, which had preserved its whiteness, and where the hairs were fewer in number, darker at their bases, and surrounded by a very small black circle; the hair was thinner at the sides of the neck; there were a great many individual hairs surrounded by circles of coloring matter; but there were also many which presented nothing of this colored areola. In some places the general dark color of the skin blended with the areola surrounding the roots of the hair, so that one uniform black surface resulted. In many places the dark color changed into black. The irides were brown. The man was of very unstable character, extremely undecided in all his undertakings, and had a lively but silly expression of countenance. A distinct smell, as of mice, with a mixture of a garlicky odor, was emitted from those parts where the excessive secretion of the coloring matter took place. In those places the heat was also greater than natural. Rayer recites the case of a young man whom he saw, whose eyelids and adjacent parts of the cheeks were of a bluish tint, similar to that which is produced on the skin by the explosion of gunpowder.
Billard has published an extraordinary case of blue discoloration of the skin in a young laundress of sixteen. Her neck, face, and upper part of the chest showed a beautiful blue tint, principally spreading over the forehead, the alae, and the mouth. When these parts were rubbed with a white towel the blue parts of the skin were detached on the towel, coloring it, and leaving the skin white. The girl's lips were red, the pulse was regular and natural, and her strength and appetite like that of a person in health. The only morbid symptom was a dry cough, but without mucous rattle or any deficiency of the sound of the chest or alteration of the natural beat of the heart. The catamenia had never failed. She had been engaged as a laundress for the past two years. From the time she began this occupation she perceived a blueness around her eyes, which disappeared however on going into the air. The phenomenon reappeared more particularly when irons were heated by a bright charcoal fire, or when she worked in a hot and confined place. The blueness spread, and her breast and abdomen became shaded with an azure blue, which appeared deeper or paler as the circulation was accelerated or retarded. When the patient's face should have blushed, the face became blue instead of red. The changes exhibited were like the sudden transition of shades presented by the chameleon. The posterior part of the trunk, the axillae,
Galtier mentions congenital and bronze spots of the skin. A man born in Switzerland the latter part of the last century, calling himself Joseph Galart, attracted the attention of the curious by exhibiting himself under the name of the "Living Angel." He presented the following appearance: The skin of the whole posterior part of the trunk, from the nape of the neck to the loins, was of a bronze color. This color extended over the shoulders and the sides of the neck, and this part was covered with hairs of great fineness and growing very thick; the skin of the rest of the body was of the usual whiteness. Those parts were the darkest which were the most covered with hair; on the back there was a space of an inch in diameter, which had preserved its whiteness, and where the hairs were fewer in number, darker at their bases, and surrounded by a very small black circle; the hair was thinner at the sides of the neck; there were a great many individual hairs surrounded by circles of coloring matter; but there were also many which presented nothing of this colored areola. In some places the general dark color of the skin blended with the areola surrounding the roots of the hair, so that one uniform black surface resulted. In many places the dark color changed into black. The irides were brown. The man was of very unstable character, extremely undecided in all his undertakings, and had a lively but silly expression of countenance. A distinct smell, as of mice, with a mixture of a garlicky odor, was emitted from those parts where the excessive secretion of the coloring matter took place. In those places the heat was also greater than natural. Rayer recites the case of a young man whom he saw, whose eyelids and adjacent parts of the cheeks were of a bluish tint, similar to that which is produced on the skin by the explosion of gunpowder.
Billard has published an extraordinary case of blue discoloration of the skin in a young laundress of sixteen. Her neck, face, and upper part of the chest showed a beautiful blue tint, principally spreading over the forehead, the alae, and the mouth. When these parts were rubbed with a white towel the blue parts of the skin were detached on the towel, coloring it, and leaving the skin white. The girl's lips were red, the pulse was regular and natural, and her strength and appetite like that of a person in health. The only morbid symptom was a dry cough, but without mucous rattle or any deficiency of the sound of the chest or alteration of the natural beat of the heart. The catamenia had never failed. She had been engaged as a laundress for the past two years. From the time she began this occupation she perceived a blueness around her eyes, which disappeared however on going into the air. The phenomenon reappeared more particularly when irons were heated by a bright charcoal fire, or when she worked in a hot and confined place. The blueness spread, and her breast and abdomen became shaded with an azure blue, which appeared deeper or paler as the circulation was accelerated or retarded. When the patient's face should have blushed, the face became blue instead of red. The changes exhibited were like the sudden transition of shades presented by the chameleon. The posterior part of the trunk, the axillae,