Depicting Skin Disease
Pl. 26. Acne vulgaris
Papulopustular eruption that affects at least 80% of teenagers. Onset is at puberty because androgens lead to changes in the follicular epithelium. The patient shown here is described in Hutchinson’s Descriptive Catalogue p. 76-77
Hutchinson wrote in the preface to Descriptive Catalogue…
"…..The original portraits have been done from nature with the most exact attention to fidelity, and have been supervised by a committee appointed by the Council….Our plates are….not only illustrations of typical varieties of disease, but faithful portraits of individual patients."
Pl. 32 Pruriginous impetigo (following varicella)
Modern Term: Impetigo
Secondary staphylococcal or streptococcal infection following breaks in the skin barrier from scratching pruritic lesions of varicella. Honey-colored crusts are characteristic of impetigo. See p. 107-109 in the Descriptive Catalogue.
"…In selecting the diseases to be illustrated, the Council has preferred good, typical examples of definite maladies, in stages of at least average severity. Rare diseases have not on that account been avoided, since it is in respect to those not frequently seen that the value of a portrait for purposes of diagnosis is especially felt."
…from the preface of Hutchinson’s Descriptive Catalogue where the plates are described.
Pl 46. Molluscum contagiosum
Dome-shaped papules with central umbilication due to molluscum poxvirus infection. Common in children with atopic dermatitis and more severe disease can be seen in immunocompromised hosts.
There is no clinical information on plate 46, issued in 1882, for by that time, the Descriptive Catalogue was no longer published. This affected the last five plates of the atlas.