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To the Editor:—In the issue of the Archives for June 1943 there appears a paper under the title "Symmetric Lividity of the Soles," by Captain L. M. Nelson. The eruption described corresponds so closely to one of the commonest dermatoses affecting servicemen in the Middle East that I am impelled to add some remarks on our experience with it over the last three years. The great frequency of the disease under military conditions is in striking contrast to the paucity of references to it in the literature.
The lividity (or erythema) referred to is only one of three main features of the eruption, the other two being excessive sweating and hyperkeratosis. Since sweating is the most constant manifestation, the dermatosis has usually been labeled "hyperhidrosis" or, more colloquially, "scalded feet."
Since, however, erythema or keratosis may occur without hyperhidrosis in some cases, it seems likely that none of the