The occurrence of ulcerations of the skin during the course of a debilitating disease has been a common observation, but recently reports have been appearing in the dermatologic literature of an odd type of ulceration found usually in patients suffering from ulcerative colitis. Brunsting, Goeckerman and O'Leary1were the first to describe this condition fully. They reported five cases, four of which were associated with ulcerative colitis. They gave the name of "pyoderma gangrenosum" to these ulcerations but in so doing emphasized the evident confusion in the nomenclature of the pyodermas. Pyodermas and ulcerations of the skin have been described under various names, such as ecthyma gangraenosum, gangrene due to the hemolytic streptococcus, infectious multiple gangrene, dermatitis gangraenosa, pyoderma chronica serpiginosa, amebiasis cutis and pyoderma chronica papillaris et ulcerens, all resembling each other in many respects, with streptococci and staphylococci found in the lesions, but secondary