THE TREATMENT of the diseases of the nails has long been relegated to dermatologists. General practitioners and general surgeons give little thought and less consideration to these problems, unless the complaints of the patient are so vociferous as to demand some sort of definitive treatment. Then the patient is either referred to a dermatologist or the offending nail plate is merely excised, with the hope and expectation that the new nail, when it grows, will possess a normal appearance. Adequate treatment can go much further to insure a satisfactory result than the heretofore haphazard methods.
Onychauxis and onychogryposis are dystrophic diseases of the nail in which the nail plate becomes decidedly hypertrophied. The differentiation of the two entities is only one of degree of severity. In onychauxis the nail plate becomes greatly thickened. There may be noted some deformity or distortion of the nail. However, in onychogryposis the hypertrophy is