•THEAICimCOpE- 





Vol. XI. 



TRENTON, N. J., JUNE, 1891. 



No. 6. 



ORIGIMAL 



C°nnvMiCATi9ns 



THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MICROSCOPE IN THE 

 DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF SKIN DISEASES. 



A. H. OHMANN-DUMESNIL, A. M., M. D. 



PROFESSOR OF DERMATOLOGY, ST. LOUIS COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS 



AND SURGEONS. 



THE universal tendency of modern times to specialization has 

 made its imprint upon the art of medicine. While general 

 principles are required by every one, the special applications of 

 these principles to certain restricted classes of disease have 

 tended so to enlarge the general scope of the healing art, that 

 one is appalled at the enormous amount of material which has 

 been accumulated in a comparatively short space of time.. 

 Dermatology is no exception to this rule and, while it is com- 

 paratively young in its development, it compares favorably with 

 the other special departments of medicine in the amount, variety, 

 and value of its literature, as well as in the rajoid strides which 

 it has made in so short a space of time. Interest has steadily 

 grown in the study which is to this day a teira incognita to the 

 majority of our practitioners of medicine. That this condition 

 is merely temporary, however, is evidenced by the fact that every 



