m
a marked contrast with the pubes and the upper part of the thighs.
Haller met with a woman in whom the skin of the pubic region was as
black as that of a negress. During nursing the nipples assume a deep
black color which disappears after weaning. Le Cat speaks of a woman of
thirty years, whose forehead assumed a dusky hue of the color of iron
rust when she was pregnant about the seventh month. By degrees the
whole face became black except the eyes and the edges of the lips,
which retained their natural color. On some days this hue was deeper
than on others; the woman being naturally of a very fair complexion had
the appearance of an alabaster figure with a black marble head. Her
hair, which was naturally exceedingly dark, appeared coarser and
blacker. She did not suffer from headache, and her appetite was good.
After becoming black, the face was very tender to the touch. The black
color disappeared two days after her accouchement, and following a
profuse perspiration by which the sheets were stained black. Her child
was of a natural color. In the following pregnancy, and even in the
third, the same phenomenon reappeared in the course of the seventh
month; in the eighth month it disappeared, but in the ninth month this
woman became the subject of convulsions, of which she had one each day.
The existence of accidental nigrities rests on well-established facts
which are distinctly different from the pigmentation of purpura,
icterus, or that produced by metallic salts. Chomel quotes the case of
a very apathic old soldier, whose skin, without any appreciable cause,
became as brown as that of a negro in some parts, and a yellowish-brown
in others. Rustin has published the case of a woman of seventy who
became as black as a negress in a single night. Goodwin relates the
case of an old maiden lady whose complexion up to the age of twenty-one
was of ordinary whiteness, but then became as black as that of an
African. Wells and Rayer have also published accounts of cases of
accidental nigrities. One of the latter cases was a sailor of
sixty-three who suffered from general nigrities, and the other was in a
woman of thirty, appearing after weaning and amenorrhea.

Mitchell Bruce has described an anomalous discoloration of the skin and
mucous membranes resembling that produced by silver or cyanosis. The
patient, a harness-maker of forty-seven, was affected generally over
the body, but particularly in the face, hands, and feet. Th