In 1933 Beeson and Pickett1 published a contribution to the experimental study of alopecia areata.
In spite of having read my publications2 in which I conclusively demonstrated the physiopathologic mechanism of the cutaneous lesion obtained experimentally, the authors confined themselves to repeating on twenty-one cats Max Joseph's operation, the extirpation of the second rachidian ganglion with its corresponding roots. Their conclusions were as vague as those of Joseph, who stated in 1886 that the lesions of alopecia obtained by this operation are similar to those of alopecia areata in human patients, which gives the false impression that the nerve section causes the appearance of the disease in the animal. Besides this, they did not study the physiopathologic process leading to the experimental production of the lesions.
Without meaning to be controversial, I think it useful to publish this paper, because I feel that Beeson and Pickett, in