Dermatite atopíque : images hístoriques

Atopic dermatitis has been described under many names before the XXth century, and first illustrated in the early XIXth century. This article presents historical images from the first volumes of Robert Willan to the Pratique dermatologique, the first encyclopedy published in 1900. Many accurate clinical descriptions of the disease can be found in the early treaties of dermatology, including the one published by Thomas Carrere in 1740. Since then, Alibert and Rayer in France, Hebra and Neumann in Vienna and Duhring and Fox in the USA illustrated their atlases with spectacular images of adults or children suffering from AD, or from other diseases that might have been considered as eczema infantile. Color engravings, color lithographs and black and white photographs showed with an increasing precision the semiology of AD, in the context of artistic representations of high quality, that have not been surpassed by modern photographs. At the beginning of the XXth century the clinical presentation, the course and heredity of the disease were perfectly established, introducing a new era of research in physiopathology and treatment in the following decades.