lanx. It did not
advance as far as gangrene or exfoliation of bone. At the time of
report the whole ten fingers were involved; the bones seemed to be
thickened, the soft parts being indurated or sclerosed. In the right
index finger a completely sclerosed ring passed around the middle
phalanx. The nails on the absorbed phalanges had become small and
considerably thickened plates. No analogous changes were found
elsewhere, and sensation was perfectly normal in the affected parts.
There were no signs whatever of a multiple neuritis nor of a leprous
condition.

There is a rare and curious condition known as "deciduous skin" or
keratolysis, in which the owners possess a skin, which, like that of a
serpent, is periodically cast off, that of the limbs coming off like
the finger of a glove. Preston of Canterbury, New Zealand, mentions the
case of a woman who had thus shed her skin every few weeks from the age
of seven or even earlier. The woman was sixty-seven years of age; the
skin in every part of the body came away in casts and cuticles which
separated entire and sometimes in one unbroken piece like a glove or
stocking. Before each paroxysm she had an associate symptom of malaise.
Even the skin of the nose and ears came off complete. None of the
patient's large family showed this idiosyncrasy, and she said that she
had been told by a medical man that it had been due to catching cold
after an attack of small-pox. Frank mentions a case in which there was
periodic and complete shedding of the cuticle and nails of the hands
and feet, which was repeated for thirty-three consecutive years on July
24th of each year, and between the hours of 3 P.M. and 9 P.M. The
patient remembered shedding for the first time while a child at play.
The paroxysms always commenced abruptly, constitutional febrile
symptoms were first experienced, and the skin became dry and hot. The
acute symptoms subsided in three or four hours and were entirely gone
in twelve hours, with the exception of the redness of the skin, which
did not disappear for thirty-six hours more. The patient had been
delirious during this period. The cuticle began to shed some time
between the third and twelfth day, in large sheets, as pictured in the
accompanying illustrations. The nails were shed in about four weeks
after the acute stage. Crocker had an instance of this nature in a man
with tylosis palmae, in which the skin was cast off every autumn, but
the process lasted two mont