INTRODUCTION
Probably his contemporaries regarded Cato as a bore, and it is tiresome, no doubt, when a motif is insistently thrummed. Let this be an apology, if one is needed, for again touching on a venerable theme, but one which seems to me never to lose in importance. I refer to the condition called dermatitis by some and eczema by others.In a given period, at least in private practice, one will see roughly seven cases of eczema or dermatitis to one of psoriasis; eight to one each of pityriasis rosea and urticaria; eighteen to one of lichen planus; nearly two to one each of acne and seborrhea of the scalp; and about eighty to one each of mycosis fungoides, scleroderma, erythema nodosum and dermatitis herpetiformis. Even multiform exudative erythema is encountered only once to thirty instances of eczema, and urticaria pigmentosa once to about seven hundred.Aschoff's father, himself