Dermatitis of the Hands

ASCHOLARLY and authoritative treatise, "Infections of the Hands," by Kanavel,1devotes over 500 pages to monographic exposition of this subspecialty of surgery. "Dermatitis of the Hands" is a subject of equal rank, a subspecialty of dermatology worthy of monographic studies as yet unwritten, a book-size title, and we can here only outline what such a book might contain. We can present some useful and practical ideas for the interpretation and management of conditions which give rise to an immense amount of suffering and which constitute some 9%2of the daily medical endeavor of a practicing dermatologist. The usual patient is a young matron,3who must keep house, cook, wash dishes, do the laundry, raise her children, and hold her husband; who can ill afford to sustain the misery of manual disability, and whose occupation is inherently one of the most hazardous with which the dermatologist