On follicular disease of the scalp / by James F. Goodhart.

  • Goodhart, James Frederic, 1845-1916.
Date:
[1870]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On follicular disease of the scalp / by James F. Goodhart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ance, a sebaceous cyst over the right eye, at the outer extremity of the broAv. It may also be stated that the mother had a well- marked specimen of molluscum contagiosum in the right tem- poral region. The sebaceous cyst was carefully dissected out, and then hardened in chromic acid. When cut in half its wall was noticed to be rather thick, and on making a section of this wall it at once became evident, by the usual appearances, that what had been a tumour was now a cyst, with all the micro- scopical characteristics of molluscum contagiosum still re- maining. The other view, and the more mechanical one, as to the pro- duction of wens may be stated thus:—that within a follicle some accidental accumulation of the secretion occurs, which gradually fills the follicle, when, by the pressure of the mate- rial so retained, the outer layers become fused together and semi- organised, much as a fibrin clot in the cavity of the heart, or of an aneurismal pouch, becomes fused into a fibroid tissue, which, blending with the atrophied muscle or arterial coats, is with difficulty distinguishable from them. This condition is described by Mr. Prescott Hewett as common in sebaceous tumours, when he says,^ In many cases it is diflScult to define the exact boundaries of the cyst itself, so intimately blended are the cyst and some of its contents. But whether this or that theory be accepted as to their pro- bable origin, it must be apparent how very close is the connec- tion between sebaceous cysts and follicular tumours, and therefore between secretion and morbid growth. Possibly, as I have endeavoured to show somewhat more fully elsewhere,^ the two latter processes are, to a certain extent, correlated, but as to direct evidence on the point, in this special instance, there is none, since it could not be ascertained whether the primary growth was from the lining membrane of the cyst, though I saw enough to make me think that very likely it was so. The fo rmer view, however, of the two has another very strong ground for its support in the fact, as stated by Sir J. Paget, that wens are more frequently hereditary than any form of cancer. Now, it is hard to conceive that a mere re- tention of secretion can be hereditary or anything, indeed, more than mere accident, while it is very easy of conception, naj', ' Loc. cit. * ' Eclinburgh Medical Journal,' May, 1872.