Richard M. Caplan

Aplasia Cutis Congenita

Congenital defect of the skin constitutes one of the rare and interesting anomalies peculiar to the newborn. Its extreme rarity, in comparison with the great frequency of minor aberrations such as disturbances of pigment, hair, glandular development, and vascular supply, can only mean that the natural, inherent factors at work in covering the body with some kind of an epithelial layer are far more ancient, fundamental, deepseated, tenacious, and stubborn than those influences which prescribe the finer details of that covering once it is established. Frank defects, absence of the skin, must invoke far more powerful, more incisive, genetic influences or have as etiology active trauma, physical violence, or other external forms of tissue destruction. 1 A variety of physical and endogenous factors may lead to arrested development of the embryonic skin. 2 There are many theories as to the cause, and no single one can explain all cases. 3

The Nails in Disease

Although we may read about fingernail and toenail disorders in standard dermatologic texts and a few other places, no source that I know presents the subject with such clear and congenial style—an attribute that makes this small book interesting to read from cover to cover, as well as an excellent reference source. The author achieves this lucidity, not only by his style, but by sacrificing most of the long descriptive words of Greek and Latin origin that have so cluttered the nomenclature, by omitting many possible bibliographic references, and by resisting the usual temptation for uncritical repetitions from the literature. The practical usefulness of a book like this derives partly from the number and quality of its photographs, since often a puzzled clinician would simply riffle the pages to find a picture that corresponds to the clinical problem in his examining room. The 126 black-and-white illustrations and four color plates