SIR,—A number of your readers have asked me to send you a suramarj'of a paper whicli I read to the British Association nf Dcrniatnliijiy in Edinlmrfih last June and whicli went l) y t\w title of" Psoriatic.; Vlopi; cia". WImt I said was that contrary to th<'tcxtiiiiok view I have lUuiiys found that hair-loss (hereinafter called alopecia) is commoniy caused by

My pationtK Mere male and female iidults anil rliildn-n with various types of psoriasis, excluding the erythrodcrmie tiiid piistnlar fWnns in whicli alopecia is well accepted. Whilst the main method used was that of clinical observation, in some iustances haira were counted in a unit surface area by marking a. s (| uare of (tf) or 1 cm sides on the skin surface and counting hairs directly in the lock issuing or cut from the area. Hair diameters were measured about I cm from tlic root end of hairs cut or plucked from both cliniciilly tiormal and atfcctcd skin, using a graduated mieroseopic grid. Hairs were plucked in bunches of.">() or so and the roots examined mieroseopically. Skin biopsies