OF THE HUMAN SKIN. 53 



pest to apply to a physician, and let him conduct 

 the treatment. Those who make a specialty of 

 cutaneous medicine, fortunately, nowadays, have 

 a large choice of substances and methods of appli- 

 cation, which can be adapted to the social condi- 

 tion, the degree of cutaneous sensibility, and the 

 age and sex of the patients applying to them. 

 This is of more importance than would at first 

 sight appear. It must be remembered that the 

 skin is torn and lacerated by the victim's scratch- 

 ing, from which we have an artificial inflammation 

 of the surface, to be always taken into considera- 

 tion in our method of treatment. A thick-skinned 

 laborer needs very different applications from a 

 delicate child, or feeble Avoman. We therefore 

 again caution against self-treatment. 



A single word in regard to the clothing : All un- 

 derclothes should be washed thoroughly. Outside 

 garments, contrary to the generally-received idea, 

 do not need anything done for them. In the 

 great hospital at Vienna, fifteen hundred cases are 

 treated yearly, and no attempt at -disinfecting the 

 clothing is found necessary. The mite lives in the 

 skin. It will therefore be seen that contagion 

 comes from personal intercourse, particularly from 



