Part 6

The disease continues for months and years, sometimes better, sometimes worse. The patient is seldom disturbed in general by the condition, except by its annoying appearance and the development of the scales.

A disease of this type has been treated by all of the methods known to medical science, and the fact that so many methods have been suggested is an indication that none has proved especially satisfactory. Any good specialist in diseases of the skin is able to clear up the lesions temporarily by the use of proper drugs, and usually recommends a change in the diet involving reduction of protein substances and of meat.

In a recent consideration by the leading specialists in diseases of the skin of Great Britain, it was pointed out that the best results today are secured by local treatment, with attention to the general hygiene of the body, and that the value of the various special forms of treatment mentioned in medical literature have not yet been established.

A person who suffers with this disease will do well to select a specialist in diseases of the skin and to follow the general routine laid down.

The chronic character of the disease and its apparent incurability cause persons affected to travel from one specialist to another, and to consult all sorts of fads and quackery in their search for relief. Until some specific curative method is discovered, they will in this way merely waste funds which might better be conserved for useful treatment.

“CAULIFLOWER EARS”

Among the first of the beauty operations to attract public attention was the correction of what the pugilists call a cauliflower or “tin” ear. This term is applied to the result of a powerful force sharply administered to the appendages on the sides of the prizefighter’s visage. Immediately thereafter the blood vessels beneath the skin burst and the blood pours out into the membranes which cover the cartilage or gristle of the ear. The blood distends the tissues of the ear to the extent of the blood pressure and until the blood coagulates. The swelling thus formed may gradually be absorbed and the ear return to its normal state, but in many instances tissue forms out of the mass and when this contracts the ear is distorted into the cauliflower shape. Dr. Samuel Iglaur has pointed out that it is the left ear that is usually of the cauliflower variety, since this ear receives most of the wallops from the right fist of the opponent. Cauliflower ears are also seen frequently in wrestlers, and before the development of headgear were not unusual in football players.

After the pugilist develops affluence and is ready to retire to the stage or the screen he is usually ready to submit himself to remodeling and decorative surgical art. If he develops this vanity previous to his retirement, the revamped ear is likely to become a special target for the opposition the moment he steps into the ring.

FLOPPING EAR NEEDS CAREFUL OPERATION

Next to the cauliflower ear, no other deformity of this particular organ is so frequently the subject of correction as the outstanding ear. This is usually a congenital development and one which is likely to give much distress, particularly to a girl who is otherwise handsome. Many persons have thought that outstanding ears could be corrected merely by sewing the ear to the skin back of it. However, in practice it has been found that the skin will stretch promptly and the ear sag into a new and perhaps more undesirable position. The operation is, therefore, most intricate, involving actual transplantation of part of the cartilage of the ear to the bony covering of the skull behind the ear.

Such decorative surgery is comparatively recent in medicine. Perhaps the first operation for correction of outstanding ears was devised in 1861. Nowadays, with the increasing prosperity, publicity and vanity, such operations have become fairly frequent.

The reliable cosmetic and plastic surgeon is usually associated with a hospital that has been classified by the American Medical Association and the American College of Surgeons as a reputable institution. His work is done under the best surgical conditions, with the assistance of well trained nurses and with all of the cleanliness that is absolutely necessary if surgery of any type is to be successful.

It has been said that the persons who seek cosmetic surgery are likely to be dissatisfied with any result short of perfection, and that they submit to operation after operation, falling more and more into the net of the unprincipled surgeon, if they happen to have begun their quest for beauty with an advertising quack.

The great campaign of education about quackery carried on for many years has resulted in the development of new methods of advertising by the unprincipled surgical impresario. He is far too shrewd to indulge himself in purchased advertising space in newspapers or periodicals. He, therefore, secures a publicity agent who is as likely as not to be a reporter on some local newspaper, willing to eke out a narrow income by playing both ends against the middle. This enterprising journalist takes payment from the beauty surgeon for securing space for him in the daily press, and submits to his newspaper news items regarding weird operations performed by the beauty surgeon on actors, pugilists and other notorious persons. The result is to bring a flood of less notable but equally simple kitchen mechanics, stenographers, elderly housewives and other shallow-minded searchers for beauty into the net.

RUBBER “REDUCERS” ARE FOES OF COMFORT BUT NOT OF FAT

In the craze for reduction which agitated most of the women of the United States during the past few years, many of them undertook all sorts of exercises, diets and the use of all kinds of apparatus to remove what they considered superfluous weight.

Among the most widely advertised articles were corsets and brassières, made of pure gum rubber, which were supposed to be worn next to the skin. It was perhaps the notion of those who promoted these devices that they would squeeze the flesh into a more solid form, perhaps causing the body to eliminate the superfluous matter from inside.

There is not, of course, the slightest scientific reason to believe that such apparatus could do anything of the kind. The chief effect of wearing rubber garments next to the skin is that they prevent perspiration from evaporating. Since the perspiration is rubbed into the skin, it is likely to produce irritation.

Some persons have severe irritation of the skin from contact with the rubber itself. The rubber garment does not increase the sweat, but simply causes it to remain on the surface. Certainly it does not cleanse the skin, but rather tends to make it accumulate deposits of waste products.

The sweat regulates the temperature of the body by evaporation from the surface. It also keeps the skin soft by keeping it moist and well lubricated. Rubber garments prevent evaporation of the sweat, which produces laceration of the skin.

Certainly they cannot in any way aid the lubrication of the skin, since retention of salts and other substances is likely to make it drier and to cover it with crusts.

BE CAREFUL IN USE OF LAXATIVE GUMS

It is safe to say that more proprietary medicines of a laxative character are sold in this country than in any other.

The vogue of chewing gum is also particularly an American institution. It is not surprising therefore that a manufacturer has begun the sale and distribution of chewing gum into which is incorporated a quantity of a well known laxative drug.

Caution in Usage.--While chewing gums thus medicated may be safe as laxatives, there are excellent reasons why this drug should not be sold indiscriminately. Samples were distributed in the streets of some cities, until boards of health prevented such distribution because the samples fell into the hands of children and there were serious results.

Besides, some persons are especially sensitive, and react with severe inflammation of the skin when they take even a small dose of this remedy.

The second use to which chewing gum has been put has been to incorporate drugs alleged to have special properties for reducing obesity.

Thyroid Extract.--Anti-fat chewing gums contain thyroid extract, which is dangerous; drugs that irritate the stomach and disturb the appetite, which are also dangerous, and drugs which have no power whatever, which is foolish. The United States government has recently issued fraud orders against several chewing gums of this character.