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| >> A Regional History of British Dermatology Here is a selection of papers dealing with the way the specialty of dermatology has developed in
The first few papers paint a broad picture of the rise of dermatology in the country as a whole. Others show how dermatology forced its way to the surface in various parts of the country, and tell us about the struggles and triumphs of the doctors who made the service what it is today. Some of the papers are presented here in full, but others are only listed as references. Of course there are still a few gaps, which I hope will be filled in due course. Henry Ford was wrong: all history is not bunk, nor need it be dull. You can read here about the ancient British swineherd who spotted that the blemishes on his pigs could be cured by water from thermal springs; the dermatologist who used a topical corticosteroid to help a sexually frustrated rhinoceros with eczema; and the dermatologist who was so keen that ‘anyone who called a macule a papule might get hit.’
A good place to start is the paper by Arthur Rook (1979). It gives a snapshot of the 1890s, when dermatology was beginning to slip from the hands of general physicians and surgeons into those of skin specialists. He reminds us that the original membership of the short-lived ‘Dermatological Society of Great Britain and Ireland’ consisted of roughly equal numbers of general physicians (36), general practitioners (35) and those who confined their practice to dermatology (35), with rather fewer general surgeons (20). Things have moved on since then. The 2005/6 handbook of the British Association of Dermatologists lists 548 Ordinary Members, backed up by 205 Trainee Members. I hope that some of them will visit this part of their website. As Maurice Garretts says in his article: ‘The future of dermatology is bright. A patient with skin disease in
John Savin |
