Comparative dermatology: A historical overview

Abstract

Comparative dermatology is the study of cutaneous diseases and tumors that affect both animal and human skin. Skin diseases have been recorded both in humans and in domestic animals since antiquity. One of the first written records of cutaneous disease in animals dates from the year 2130 BCE in an Egyptian veterinary papyrus. 1 Mention of topical medicaments includes the use of beer, honey, wax, and the dung of snakes and lizards. Probably the first reference to comparative dermatology is in the Bible in Exodus 9:9–11, in which Moses records an event where he observes boils breaking in sores on both man and beast. The Greek physician Aesculapius (1321-1243 BCE) and Aristotle (384 BCE) treated and reported skin disease in animals as well as humans; Aristotle studied comparative anatomy and physiology of the skin. During the middle ages, the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) wrote a 37-volume text entitled Natural History which mentions many remedies for animal dermatoses. Included were such reprehensible therapies as wet dressings of mouse dung and urine, as well as treatments still used today including astringents and tar and sulfur preparations. There continued to be various publications over the next several centuries recording animal skin diseases, their therapy, and their similarities to human dermatoses.