The history of dermatology in Dublin
D.J.EEDY
Department of Dermatology, Craigavon Area Hospital Group Trust, Portadown, U.K.
In 1837, Abraham Colles (1773-1843), best known for the Colles fracture, published important observations on venereal disease and the use of mercury. He accurately described the spectrum of secondary syphilis as '...the scaly eruption, the copper-coloured blotch' and while 'the pustular eruption is aggravated by this treatment the papular eruption yields most readily to mercury'. The term 'Colles' Law' was used to describe his observation that syphilitic infants with oral lesions could not transmit the disease to their infected mothers but were infective to previously healthy hired wet nurses indicating the immunity of previously infected individuals.
William Wallace (1791-1837) used inoculation experiments to demonstrate the infectivity and the incubation period of syphilis. He wrote on the use of 'Sulphureous Fumigations' as an effective remedy for conditions of the skin and in 1835 published a clinical lecture in the Lancet on the use of 'Hydriodate of Potash' as a powerful treatment for syphilis, which remained the main treatment for more than 100 years. At his own expense he personally founded the Dublin Infirmary for Diseases of the Skin, which was the first hospital of its kind in these islands.
Robert Graves (1796-1853) (of' Graves Disease') published in his 'Lectures in Clinical Medicine' (1843) the first accurate clinical description of 'Angioneurotic Oedema'. He described how 'tumours rise, run through their course and disappear in the space of a few hours … Sometimes the lips ... inside of the mouth and uvula are attacked... On the following day there is no trace of their existence...'. His description predates by 40 years that of Heinrich Quincke in 1882. Arthur Jacob (1790-1874) was a pupil of Colles and described in 1827 the Jacob's ulcer, which is an account of basal cell carcinoma. His description of basal cell carcinoma remains classical to this day and emphasizes its incurable nature unless treated by extirpation. By 1910 Stevenson introduced radium into the treatment of rodent ulcers with dramatic results and in 1914 established a radium institute for Ireland. John Moore Neligan (1815-63) became appointed as one of the commissioners for the first edition of the British Pharmacopoeia.
In another experiment in inoculation Walter Smith (1844-1932) is credited with first inoculation of Achorion schoenleinii into human skin, producing lesions of favus. Smith also published in 1879 the first description of monilethrix. His successor, Walter Beattie (1853-1923), was on the editorial staff of the British Journal of Dermatology.