Excerpt from a patient's journal, giving a common cause of the illness:
"Duration of illness - 4 to 5 years. Has suffered great pain during shepherding - principally from going barefoot early in Spring whereupon the illness broke out in the form of many blisters on his feet. Eyebrows gone, facial skin evenly infected and thickened, purplish-blue hue - chiefly on the brow. Many small, almost confluent reddish-brown nodules on the extremities.
Absence of sensation in the feet and legs - general condition good."
(BBA: 313:Kc:1, Photo GSJ).