SHOCKING Psoriasis Pictures from 1899

There is nothing quite like going through old medical textbooks to see how the authors used to present medical conditions in pictures. These days, authors go to great lengths to protect confidentiality by not showing the patient’s face or by placing black bars over the patient’s eyes. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, patients were shown with various ailments, with the face and eyes for all to see. The pictures of the conditions also differed back then in being quite startling, whereas today’s medical texts are sometimes less dramatic in terms of the pictoral presentations.

MedFriendly will be featuring some entries from time to time highlighting what some classic medical texts showed about various medical conditions in the late 1800s to early 1900s. The first entry is about the skin condition, psoriasis. Psoriasis is a common condition that many people have which causes redness and irritation. It usually causes thick red skin with flaky silver-white patches. It is a lifelong condition that can go away for a long time but later return. It often occurs on the elbow but can occur anywhere. It can be a rather unsightly condition. What many people do not know is that it can actually be disfiguring.

Below are some pictures of psoriasis from an 1899 text called Atlas of diseases of the skin by Dr. Franz Mracek. Here is a leg:

Foot

Leg

Arm

Back

Belly

Hand