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Lingua Nigra. Presented by Dr. Shaffer.
H. W., a man, aged 19, a Duco sprayer, two months previously had noticed a dime-sized area on the dorsum of the tongue, immediately anterior to the circumvallate papillae. When the patient was presented, the patch extended to within 2.5 cm. of the tip of the tongue and 1 cm. from the sides. Its margins were ill defined and yellowish, while the center was dark brown, with a mass of hairlike projections 0.5 cm. in length. Specimens had been examined in potassium hydroxide, with negative results. The patient had not taken any medicine, nor had he used any local application. He said that a similar patch had appeared one year previously, and had lasted one week.
DISCUSSION
Dr. Gruhzit: Goldberg has lately written on the subject of black tongue. He felt that in the southern states it was related to pellagra, and that it