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Such epidermic anomalies as ichthyosis, scleroderma, and molluscum simplex, sometimes appearing shortly after birth, but generally seen later in life, will be spoken of in the chapter on Anomalous Skin Diseases. Human horns are anomalous outgrowths from the skin and are far more frequent than ordinarily supposed. Nearly all the older writers cite examples.
It was remarked that his olfactory sense was intact. The harlequin fetus, of which there are specimens in Guy's Hospital, London Hospital, and the Royal College of Surgeons Museum, is the result of ichthyosis congenita.
Ichthyosis may be congenital, and over sixty years ago Steinhausen described a fetal monster in the anatomic collection in Berlin, the whole surface of whose body was covered with a thick layer of epidermis, the skin being so thick as to form a covering like a coat-of-mail.
The active principle of the juice known as papain, said to be capable of digesting two hundred times its weight of fibrine, is used for many disorders and ailments, from dyspepsia to ringworm and ichthyosis or fish-skin disease. By common repute the papaw tree has the power of rendering tough meat tender.
The "leopard-boy of Africa," so extensively advertised by dime museums over the country, was a well-defined case of leukoderma in a young mulatto, a fitting parallel for the case of ichthyosis styled the "alligator-boy." Leukoderma is more common among females. It is rarely seen in children, being particularly a disease of middle age.
Erasmus Wilson speaks of it as ichthyosis sebacea cornea. H. G. Brooke describes a case in a girl of six. The first sign had been an eruption of little black spots on the nape of the neck. These spots gradually developed into papules, and the whole skin took on a dirty yellow color.
Duyse reports a case of extensive hypertrichosis of the back in a girl aged nine years; her teeth were normal; there was pigmentation of the back and numerous pigmentary nevi on the face. Below each scapula there were tumors of the nature of fibroma molluscum. In addition to hairy nevi on the other parts of the body there was localized ichthyosis. Schulz first observed the patient in 1878.
Ichthyosis is a disease of the skin characterized by a morbid development of the papillae and thickening of the epidermic lamellae; according as the skin is affected over a larger or smaller area, or only the epithelial lining of the follicles, it is known as ichthyosis diffusa, or ichthyosis follicularis.
According to Rayer the celebrated "porcupine-man" who exhibited himself in England in 1710 was an example of a rare form of ichthyosis. This man's body, except the face, the palms of the hands, and the soles of the feet, was covered with small excrescences in the form of prickles.
So are the elbows and the knees; and similar portions of the thighs and the arms may be found affected with ichthyosis.
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