SENSITIZATION DERMATOSES OF NONFUNGOUS NATURE

Abstract

The recent original observations and investigations of Williams¹in demonstrating that certain eruptions on the hands were a mycotoxic manifestation of distant active fungous foci has illuminated the mechanism of many heretofore etiologic puzzles. Williams called them dermatophytids, and numerous othersubsequent publications have amply confirmed his original observations. One of us (C. W.) has recently observed a series of cases (eighteen) in which it appeared that an eruption of the glabrous skin of the body occurring either immediately or a short time after a flare up of fungous infection may occasionally be due to sensitization to substances other than circulating fungi or fungous toxins; the skin had apparently been rendered sensitive by the superficial fungous infection. Williams was the first to advance the theory that hand lesions resulted from dissemination of fungi or their products from foci on the feet. Further investigations by Walthard,²Jadassohn³and Peck