Alopecia. Post Partem. Alopecia Areata. 525 



the elbows of dogs, etc., from lying on them, and in inflamma- 

 tion of the hair follicles from a variety of infections. It has 

 been charged on general debility in excessive lactation, in gesta- 

 tion, and in starvation, on poisons in the blood as in petechial 

 fever, and on mu.sty or spoiled fodders in bad seasons, or from 

 low damp lands. 



When in the absence of such appreciable causes it commences 

 at one or more points and gradually extends, and persists, it con- 

 stitutes alopecia areata. This has been attributed to a disorder 

 of the cutaneous nerves (tropho-neurosis), but the progressive 

 advance of the disease, without limitation to areas representing 

 the distribution of given cutaneous nerves, and the complete ab- 

 sence of other derangement of nerve function, throw doubt on 

 this conclusion. Another doctrine attributes it to a microbe, but 

 though micrococci and other organisms have been found, they 

 have not been proved to be constant nor to be absolutely causa- 

 tive of the disease. Still another theory holds that it is a disea.se 

 of the derma and not of the hair at all, the evulsion of the hair 

 following the implication of tlie tissues around the follicles. 



Sympto))is. The baldness dependent on a general disorder oc- 

 curs at once over an extended area. That of ringworm, acariasis, 

 and of the specific alopecia areata, advances gradually and often 

 slowly from a given point, until it may include a large area. 

 Roll has seen it extend from a few points to nearly the whole 

 body of the horse in a single year. In this, as in other ca.ses in 

 horse and dog, the baldness was followed by a considerable in- 

 crease of the pigmentation of the skin. 



Treatment. In ca.ses that occur as the result of other diseases, 

 the rational treatment is to deal with these diseases, and then to 

 stimulate the growth of hair by some one or other of the known 

 stimulants (dilute tincture of cantharides, kerosene, tar water, 

 solution of pilocarpin hydrochlorate). In the more specific 

 form, no treatment has been very successful, yet the best re- 

 sults on the whole appear to have come from local germicide ap- 

 plicatiojis. Mercuric chloride in alcohol and water (i;5oo); 

 cresol I, alcohol 20 ; tincture of iodine reduced to half its strength 

 by addition of alcohol ; balsam of Peru i, alcoliol 5; nitrate of 

 silver i, alcohol 15, serve as examples. 



As general treatment ar.senic has been employed, but with no 

 very encouraging results. 



