In individuals free from skin diseases, the resistance and the neutralisation to alkali, and the quantity of lipids at the surface of the skin, are constitltional factors; these idiotypically (genetically) controlled factors are subject to paratypical (environmental) variations. The frequency of a reduced alkali neutralisation and of sebostasis in case of neurodermitis atopica and of ichthyosis vulgaris is not dealt with in the literature, but it results from literature findings that a pathologic alkali resistance is a facultative feature in neurodermitis atopica, while it is an obligatory one in ichthyosis vulgaris. The difference seems to be conditioned genetically. In neurodermitis atopica, the genotype is in itself of no pathogenic importance since the disease is induced exclusively by exogenous and endogenous, non hereditary agents. In ichthyosis vulgaris, the reduced alkali resistance falls into the pleiotropic character of the disease.