Abstracts on historical topics at the
European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology

8th EADV Congress, Amsterdam, Sept 29th - Oct 2nd, 1999

Workshop on Early european Dermatology overseas

Chair : K Holubar / Co-chairs : R Happle, J Goens.

EADV 99 - W8-1
Overseas Dermatology in european litterature
J.L. Goens, Brussels, Belgium

European countries have a long colonial tradition, and travelling is an important part of the action in their literature. During their travels, characters can observe, catch, and bring back home overseas dermatological diseases.
The medical figures can thus either be described at work abroad, or be consulted in Europe.
Not surprisingly the great epidemic diseases with cultural impact, like leprosy, smallpox or syphilis are the most frequently quoted.
Syphilis especially plays an important role, as it is associated closely to communication and thus to travelling experience.

EADV 99 - W8-2
Dermatoloy in the dutch east Indies anno 1900
B. Mesander, Gouda, The Netherlands

The year 1900 can be characterised as a turning point in the dermatological dedication of The Netherlands to one of his contemporary colonies, Dutch East Indies. At the time a number of lines converged through which a Dutch dermatology as a medical specialty came into existence: progress of medicine towards natural science, unity in schooling of the Dutch physicians, first Dutch professional chair of dermatology. This early Dutch genuine European dermatology spread from The Netherlands to the territory overseas where she came into beneficial interference with pre-existing tropical dermatology experienced by indigenous doctors djawa and military medical doctors from Europe. Insights in tropical dermatology were deepened and a modem view on cosmopolitan dermatology came within the reach of colonials and natives as well. Tropical skin diseases side by side with skin diseases in the tropics. E.g. lepra, framboesia, madurafoot, ulcus phagedaenicum tropicum, Dajak itch, copra itch, manggalumps, myiasis cutanea face to face with psoriasis, eczema, acne, lichen ruber, scabies, pyodermia, dermatomycosis, pediculosis, syphilis and so on. New colonial ethical policy announced by the Dutch queen in 1901 provided better medical, sanitary and hygienic services. A civil medical service came into being as important as the military service which dominated the scene before. A medical faculty was set up in Batavia, colonial medical institutes in The Netherlands next to Dutch universities took care of producing graduates with better expertise than ever. The Dutchman J.D. Käyser, a real dermatologist, played a major role in the overseas implementation of a new European understanding regarding skin diseases including bacteriology, immunology and parasitology. For the benefit of all concerned he produced a textbook of tropical skin diseases and one about nursing of skin diseases in the tropics.

EADV 99 - W8-4
Phototherapy in India
C.R. Srinivas, Department of Dermatology, PSG Hospitals, Coimbatore, India

Heliotherapy has been practised in India since time immemorial. Sun is believed to be a God and famous temples such as Konarak at the Eastern Coast of India has been erected. The first Solarium in India was installed by Maharaja of Jamnagar, Near Rajkot for treatment of skin disease (?Vitiligo).
PUVASOL a common method of phototherapy in this sun rich tropical country is still the most in expensive mode of phototherapy. The Indian pigmented skin has a high MED to UVB and MPD cannot usually be determined.
I will talk on phototherapy as practised in India & review the relevant literature. I will also talk briefly on other therapeutic and diagnostic methodology as practised in India.

EADV 99 - W8-5
A great florentine, overseas researcher, Sir Aldo Castellani, in the era of colonial Italy
E. Panconesi, Department of Dermatology, University of Florence, Italy

The colonial era began late and was not very fortunate in Italy, one of the last European countries to establish a national identity. Thus, there is generally little, poorly documented information about the work of Italian dermatologists overseas.
The Florentine dermatologist Sir Aldo Castellani is an important exception to this. He was an internationally recognised researcher whose scientific and human interests took him far beyond the confines of both dermatology and his mother country. He can be considered exemplary of his times, both for his declared passion for dermatology, his discoveries of interest to dermatology and other fields of medicine, his involvement in the general history of the period, and his international career, which began in Italy and then continued in England (where he was knighted), Ceylon, Serbia, and Portugal.

EADV 99 - W8-6
The grand tour of european dermatology centers : what Louis A. Duhring learned
L.C. Parish, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

By the 1860's, graduates from many of the prestigious American medical schools often embarked upon the Grand Tour of European medical centres. Louis A. Duhring (1845-1913), who was a recent graduate of America's oldest medical school, the University of Pennsylvania (1867), completed his internship at the Philadelphia General Hospital (Blockley) the following year. He set out to visit the dermatology clinics in London, Paris, and Vienna, even extending his studies to include Berlin and Constantinople, something most of his contemporaries could ill-afford. His impressions and observations of the dermatologists of the mid-nineteenth century were recorded in a series of published letters in the Philadelphia Medical Times.

EADV 99 - W8-7
Colonial attitudes to topical medicaments
T.J. Ryan, Oxford Brookes University, OCHRAD, Oxford, UK

The importing and exporting of medicaments to and from Europe in the past is better recorded than the attitudes that went with them. Washing, annointing and the application or ingestion of medicaments is universal and early explorers were curious about them as well as being the providers of therapeutic gifts. Some systems of medicine, such as that of Greece, spread as far afield as India and is the basis of Unani practice.
The exchange of attitudes to medicine is of equal interest. The crusaders of Europe, while destructive of people in the East, brought back to Europe the hospitaller movement. The influence of their caring attitude on medical practice is not as well researched as the recording of the properties they owned - five hospitals in Oxford alone, in the 12th century.
The destruction of African, South American and Australian Aboriginal medical practice, was the consequence of attitudes which saw such practice as both unscientific and as black magic. It contrasted with the influence of Europeans in the East India Company, which was more tolerant.
Recent history reveals that extraordinary individuals exported practical and organisational skills to many parts of the world. Colonial attitudes did not prevent the overwhelming exchange of attitudes so that, in Europe, for example, lay persons seek Chinese medicine and Chinese seek Western medicine - mostly this is a destructive process due to malpractice and the resulting legislation. A policy of integration will hopefully feature in the next millennium. Currently it is the field of 'wound healing' which is most active in identifying both the science and the philosophy underlying worldwide practices.

EADV 99 - W8-8
Medical care in South-West Africa about 1900
A. Scholz, Medical Faculty Technical University Dresden, Germany

South West Africa was the first German colony of the Second Empire. The occupation by German merchants and later by soldiers started in 1882.
The most frequent diseases were malaria and gastro-intestinal disturbances. There were many typhoid epidemics. The medical care of the European population was sufficient 23 civil physicians, 171 sanitary officers, 31 nurses of the Red Cross, and 92 male nurses worked in South-West Africa from 1893 to 1914. Various hospitals existed both for the Europeans and for the native. The soldiers, the so-called "protective troops", were treated in own military hospitals. There were state, private, and denominational hospitals.
The venereal diseases had the highest frequency. They were more spread out in all colonies than they did in Europe. The average rate of VD was puted at the European population about 20%, in the native population about 35%. The incidence of syphilis of Africans increased in few regions to a percentage of 50%, The causes of the high level of the VD were different. The prostitution of white men with black women was usual, because the number of European women was small. The Europeans assessed the native women as inferior members of the society. The African women with VD infected their husbands or other partners. The infected black people spread out the VD in their home regions. The patients with syphilis were treated by mercury kurs and internal by potassium iodide. The treatment with Salvarsan started in 1911.
Various prophylactic activities were initiated. Sex education m various kinds were performed Prostitutes were regularly investigated. Patients with VD were treated and isolated. Mixed marriage between black and white people was forbidden since 1905. Single, young German women were sent regularly as "potential brides" to South-West Africa since 1898.