The two cases of Raynaud's disease to be reported in this paper, apart from their unusual dermatologic accompaniments, do not depart greatly in their clinical appearance and history from the typical case, but are unusual in respect to the age of the patients and their physical make-up.
The association with other dermatoses may be merely coincidental, or there may be a causal relationship. I believe the latter is the case. While the disturbance of vasomotor innervation is accepted as the essential common feature of all cases correctly diagnosed as Raynaud's disease, it is believed that the fundamental cause is toxemia. Toxemia, generally of bacterial origin, is commonly considered to be the chief etiologic factor in dermatitis herpetiformis and lupus erythematosus, and the reports following describe cases of these diseases accompanied by the clinical phenomena of Raynaud's disease.
Barlow,1 in his appendix to the English translations of Raynaud's original thesis,