Page:Skin Diseases of Children.djvu/89

needle, connected with the negative pole of a galvanic battery, through the most superficial portion of the growth, the circuit being completed by the patient grasping a moist sponge attached to the positive electrode. This was repeated until the electrolytic destruction of tissue reduced the growth to the level of the surrounding skin, removed the pigmentation, and to a certain extent destroyed the hypertrophied hair follicles. The slight growth of hair which persisted after the affected skin had become smooth and comparatively normal in color was destroyed by the introduction of the electrolytic needle into each separate follicle, according to the method employed in the treatment of superfluous hair. The young man now presents not the slightest deformity of the eyelid, and scarcely a trace, upon close inspection, of the dark, warty, and hairy growth which formerly attracted attention wherever he went and was the source of great mortification.