DERMATITIS VELDIS 



2031 



becomes very chronic, but does not lead to papillary acanthotic 

 formations. 



History. — For long the Bushmen of the region known as Barcoo 

 River, North Queensland, have suffered from sores which they call 

 Barcoo rot. In the Transvaal the inhabitants are afflicted with a 

 sore which they call * gift zeer ' or poison sore, while in the Free 

 State the residents are attacked by a similar sore which they call 

 ' brand zeer ' or burn sore. 



In 190 1 Ogston and in 1904 Harman reported upon these condi- 

 tions under the name ' veld sore,' a term used by the English settlers 

 in South Africa. Harman further proved that it was the same as 

 Barcoo rot by the evidence of Australian Bushmen who had suffered 

 from the one in Australia, and from the other in South Africa 

 recognizing them as the same. In 1913 Black gave us his personal 

 experiences of Barcoo rot. In 19 17 Martin met with a similar 

 condition in the Anzac Mounted Division operating in the desert 

 east of the Suez Canal, and again it was recognized by the men who 

 had seen or experienced Barcoo rot to be the same complaint. 



Climatology. — The disease is known to occur in Tropical Australia, 

 South Africa, Egypt, and Equatorial Africa. 



iEtiology. — Harman obtained staphylococci and streptococci from 

 his cases. He was inclined to consider his yellow staphylococcus 

 as the causal organism, and called it Micrococcus vesicans, but it is 

 more probable that the causal agent is the streptococcus which 

 may be known provisionally as Streptococcus vesicans, and which may 

 be only a synonym for some more fully worked out species such as 

 S. versatilis Broadhurst, 1915. The disease can be reproduced in 

 man by inoculating the fluid of the blisters on to a raw place in 

 the skin. 



Pathological Histology. — -The fresh unopened bhster has been 

 studied by Harman, who found that it occurred in the layers of the 

 epidermis. The stratum corneum is raised, forming the roof of the 

 bhster, which begins as a cleft in the stratum lucidum. The epider- 

 mis is never wholly absent from the floor, which is composed of 

 swollen cells of the stratum lucidum and stratum granulosum. The 

 dermis shows a moderate degree of leucocytic invasion beneath 

 the floor of the ulcer. Cocci in the form of diplococci or short chains 

 are found in spaces between the cells of the epidermis. 



Symptomatology. — The dermatitis begins by the patient feeling a 

 pricking or burning sensation in some part of the body. On ex- 

 amining this, he finds that on the site of some small abrasion there 

 is a little blister surrounded by a hyperaemic zone. The blister 

 quickly increases in size until it may attain that of a shilling, but 

 more usually it grows slowly, and when the size of a sixpenny-piece 

 is reached it usually bursts, setting free some sero-purulent fluid 

 and forming a superficial ulcer with a red floor and roundish or 

 somewhat festooned margins. 



The floor of the ulcer remains dry like parchment. The ulcer may 

 be painful, but, especially at the beginning, there is frequently 



