RECENTLY dermatologists have shown considerable concern over the comparatively large number of skin diseases of unknown etiology. Chipman1in his chairman's address before the section of Dermatology and Syphilology of the American Medical Association at St. Louis, pleaded for more determined effort on the part of dermatologists to discover the etiology of many diseases of the skin. Haase2in his chairman's address at San Francisco scored dermatologists for “the lethargy that now seems to possess” them and said that “the remedy for this condition is the thorough recognition that dermatology is nothing more, and certainly nothing less than a highly specialized branch of internal medicine.” As an internist, therefore, I am offering no apologies for discussing briefly the etiology of a dermatological condition.