THE NAME erythema elevatum diutinum was used by Crocker and Williams1 in 1894 to describe a cutaneous eruption in a 6 year old girl. The patient did not have "rheumatism." A microscopic examination of a piece of excised skin showed a fibrocellular structure in the corium but no changes in the blood vessels except a slight cellular infiltration in the outer coats. In 1929 Weidman and Besancon2 reported 2 cases of a condition which they described as erythema elevatum diutinum. The name used by Crocker and Williams was retained for the disease, although Weidman and Besancon described histopathologic changes which to them were pathognomonic and did not correspond with those previously described under that name by any other investigator.
Three additional cases presenting this type of histopathologic change have been reported since then: 1 by Combes and Bluefarb in 1940,3 another by Engman, Pfaff and Cooper in