The Care of the Skin and Hair (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1912. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X CEBTAIN DEFECTS IN THE SKIN WARTS Warts are peculiar little growths in the skin that, from a scientific standpoint, are of great interest. In children they are very common. They may appear in crops and be present in numbers when first noticed, and in the same way they may as rapidly disappear. There are many things that suggest that they are inoculable; for example, a row of them sometimes develops along the line of a scratch on the hand of a child who already had other warts on the hand. They occur frequently in adults up to forty-five, but very much less commonly than in children. After forty-five the development of ordinary warts is, I believe, rare. My impression is they are commoner in women than in men. Warts as they occur in adults are usually single or few in number, but larger than the juvenile warts. They are also of much longer duration, but in time, like the warts of childhood, they disappear spontaneously. Warts do not develop into dangerous growths, except in the rarest instances. Unless situated in locations where they are exposed to injury, they give no trouble, and they are trivial lesions aside from their disfigurement. An exception to this statement must be made for warts upon the palms and soles. They frequently develop on the soles, particularly in school children--among whom they occur at times almost in epidemics. They may be very painful on account of the pressure and interfere seriously with walking. Because of the sudden way in which children's warts often disappear, there are innumerable superstitious methods of treatment for them. They often quickly disappear after such treatments, but when one undertakes their removal by physical means they are at times remarkably resistant. The popular way of destroying them with strong mi...