Page:Tropical Diseases.djvu/702

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656
YAWS
[CHAP.

small and circular; occasionally they are oval, irregular, or form rings encircling islets of healthy skin. Their extent and number are very uncertain. They are scattered irregularly over limbs and trunk; occasionally they may be almost confluent, the patches coalescing and giving rise to an appearance as if the entire skin had been dusted over with flour. On the other hand, this furfuraceous desquamation may be so slight as to be overlooked. In other instances it may be very marked, the heaping up of desquamating

Fig. 89.—Case of yaws. (Journal of Tropical Medicine.)

epidermic scales producing white marks, very evident on the dark skin of a negro or Oriental.

This patchy, furfuraceous condition of the skin[1] not only occurs at the early stages of yaws, but may persist throughout the attack, or reappear as a fresh eruption at any period of the disease.

The yaw (Figs. 89, 90).—When the furfuraceous patches have been in existence for a few days, minute papules appear in them. Describing these papules,

  1. The furfuraceous eruption has been carefully studied by Nicholls. It is not mentioned by the majority of authors.