GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



491 



By the term efflorescence we designate either a morbid modifica- 

 tion located on a circumscribed space of the integument and pre- 

 senting a determined type in its form, evolution, and anatomical 

 signification (Kaposi), or very slight eruptions, which are of little 

 emportance and without very distinct nosography (Besnier and 

 Doyon). 



Spots consist of abnormal colorations of the skin or in depilations 

 which are limited to a circumscribed region. 



Papules are small, salient, cutaneous elevations filled solid with 

 the products of an infiltration in the papillary layer of the derma. 

 They may lose their typical character and be crowned by a vesicle 

 or a pustule (papulo-vesiculous and papulo-pustulous alterations). 



Vesicles are soft elevations, from the size of a millet-seed to a 

 lentil, the superior part of which is thin and frail and exclusively 

 formed by the epithelial layer of the epidermis, and which contain 

 a serous exudate. 



Bulla, bleb, or plilyctœna. These differ only from the vesicles by 

 their larger dimensions. 



The very comprehensive term pimple {bouton) refers to the small 

 isolated or discrete papulous cutaneous blotches, which do not end 

 in suppuration. 



Pustules are epidermic or dermo-epidermic elevations which are 

 filled with pus. Epidermic pustules (pustulo-vesicle or pustulo- 

 bulla) leave uninjured the epithelial layer which immediately covers 

 the papilla. Dermic pustules lead to destruction of the whole 

 epidermal and papillary layer. 



Excoriations are more or less deep traumatic cutaneous lesions 

 which are determined by the action of a foreign body upon a region 

 which is the seat of pruritus. 



The term exulceration must be reserved for superficial lesions of 

 the integument, whether traumatic or not, and characterized by the 

 destruction of the horny coating of the epidermis and the laying 

 bare of the mucous layer. 



Ulcerations are losses of substance of variable extent and depth, 

 and affecting the corium, being also accompanied by a purulent 

 secretion, which is more or less abundant and only forming a 

 cicatrix very slowdy. 



Rhagades (fissures, cracks) are crevices of the epidermis, which 

 sometimes extend to the derma ; the edges of these lesions are ordi- 

 narily thick, sharp-cut, the floor being bloody or ulcerated. 



