dish sailor of twenty-two, with rapid onset of pigmentation.

Xeroderma pigmentosum, first described by Kaposi in 1870, is a very
rare disease, but owing to its striking peculiarities is easily
recognized. Crocker saw the first three cases in England, and describes
one as a type. The patient was a girl of twelve, whose general health
and nutrition were good. The disease began when she was between twelve
and eighteen months old, without any premonitory symptom. The disease
occupied the parts habitually uncovered in childhood. The whole of
these areas was more or less densely speckled with pigmented,
freckle-like spots, varying in tint from a light, raw umber to a deep
sepia, and in size from a pin's head to a bean, and of a roundish and
irregular shape. Interspersed among the pigment-spots, but not so
numerous, were white atrophic spots, which in some parts coalesced,
forming white, shining, cicatrix-like areas. The skin upon this was
finely wrinkled, and either smooth or shiny, or covered with thin,
white scales. On these white areas bright red spots were conspicuous,
due to telangiectasis, and there were also some stellate vascular spots
and strife interspersed among the pigment. Small warts were seen
springing up from some of the pigment spots. These warts ulcerated and
gave rise to numerous superficial ulcerations, covered with yellow
crusts, irregularly scattered over the face, mostly on the right side.
The pus coming from these ulcers was apparently innocuous. The patient
complained neither of itching nor of pain. Archambault has collected 60
cases, and gives a good resume to date. Amiscis reports two cases of
brothers, in one of whom the disease began at eight months, and in the
other at a year, and concludes that it is not a lesion due to external
stimuli or known parasitic elements, but must be regarded as a
specific, congenital dystrophy of the skin, of unknown pathogenesis.
However, observations have shown that it may occur at forty-three years
(Riehl), and sixty-four years (Kaposi). Crocker believes that the
disease is an atrophic degeneration of the skin, dependent on a primary
neurosis, to which there is a congenital predisposition.

Nigrities is a name given by the older writers to certain black
blotches occurring on the skin of a white person--in other words, it is
a synonym of melasma. According to Rayer it is not uncommon to see the
scrotum and the skin of the penis of adults almost black, so as to for