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To the Editor.—
In their otherwise outstanding paper in the December 1968, Archives, Woodside et al (page 651) refer to the palmar lesions of the basal cell nevus syndrome as "porokeratosis of Mantoux." This term has also been associated with the basal cell nevus syndrome by Calnan (British Journal of Dermatology65:219, 1953).When we go back to Mantoux' original description (Mantoux, Ch.: Porokératose papillomateuse palmaire et plantaire, Annales de Dermatologie, 4ème série, tom 4, 1903, p 15) we encounter something quite different from the chronic epidermal defects of the basal cell nevus syndrome. He presented a 22-year-old housemaid with an eruption of only a few months' duration. The initial lesion resembled a hyperkeratotic dyshidrotic vesicle, but it later enlarged and became hemorrhagic. Subsequently the central keratotic portion sloughed, leaving a depression 5 to 6 mm in diameter with a vegetative center. When the central vegetation fell away, a