The word pemphigus is derived from a Greek word, which means a blister. Hence the earlier writers used the term, with some qualifying adjective, for all bullous eruptions. This gave a large number of varieties. More recently the term is more restricted in its use, and instead of some of these varieties we hear of the bullous eruptions of syphilis, impetigo bullosa, epidermolysis bullosa, etc.
This seems to indicate that the work of elimination is going on and the term will in the near future be restricted in its use to some definitely described disease or perhaps several varieties of the same disease. The disease known as pemphigus vulgaris by Hebra, Kaposi and others, or as pemphigus chronicus by Unna, Crocker and others, is the one to which no other name is given, and seems entitled to be distinctly known as pemphigus. It would seem that pemphigus foliaceous is but