CHAPTER XV
THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CUTANEOUS INFECTIONS

Since there are many species of infections that attack the skin,
and they have many names, but these names are very con—
fused, it will be worth while to set down briefly, in passing, some
remarks about them, so that we may learn how they differ from
one another and which are contagious, which not.

When yellow bile is present and is driven out to the skin or
confined there in some way and does not putrefy, then it causes
what is ealled Erysipelas, that is, one or several pustules ac—
companied by redness and great heat, and sometimes by fever
as well.  Sometimes this occurs on the face, sometimes on other
parts also. When it attacks the face it is much more serious,
for it often happens that from a small pustule the surrounding
parts and the whole face are so inflamed that it is impossible
to open the eyes, and the lips are deformed by swelling; this
happens when the affection is so acute that it is communicated
to the adjacent parts. 'The moderns call this 'Red Drop'
(gout). I the bile, putrefying, becomes inflamed and fiery,
this causes severe erysipelas, but when it does not become in—
flamed, it produces other erysipelata, and when these are made
of unmixed bile?" they are called simply erysipelata. But
when they are made of bile that is not pure but mixed, they
are not ecalled simply erysipelata, but have a compound name
that designates the added element of & humor, or the kind of
abscess called after the humor. For instance, when there is
blood in the compound, we use the term 'phlegmonic erysipelas';
when there is pituita, we call it 'oedemic erysipelas'; when
there is black bile, we call it 'scirrhodic erysipelas'; but the
yellow bile always predominates. In this scirrhodic /kind,
if the bile has become inflamed and fiery, it produces the kind
of pustule called 'epinyctis', "* because it most frequently breaks

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