History of Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas, Part I: 1909-1959

Abstract

Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas was born in May 1909. At first, issues appeared in step with the academic year, but publication began to follow the calendar year in 1957. Volume 18 was skipped in 1926-7 in an effort to correct confusion in the numbering of volumes and pages of earlier issues. October 1928 saw the journal grow from 6 issues per year to 9. Although the Spanish Civil War brought publication to a halt during the 1936-7 academic year, Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas was one of the first Spanish scientific journals to recover from the conflict. The initial print run of 100 copies was increased to 700 after the war. The content evolved over time: while originally conceived to provide a strict account of sessions of the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (AEDV) —originally known as the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Syphilology— the journal gradually came to include review articles, case reports, a section summarizing the content of international journals, news and various other types of writing. The editorial board and the association's board of directors were one and the same for many years. According to the earliest charter, the editor-in-chief was also the president of the association and the associate editor was the association's vice-president. The subjects of articles provide a faithful portrait of how the specialty has changed. Syphilis, a main concern before the introduction of penicillin in the 1940s, was sidelined afterwards. The appearance of 20th-century pharmaceuticals such as salvarsan, sulfa drugs, thiazides, and corticosteroids were soon reflected in the number of articles describing their use. Certain original contributions by Spanish authors to international dermatology first appeared in Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas. Examples are Azúa's description of pseudoepithelioma and Covisa and Bejarano's of chancriform pyoderma. Volume 50 (1959), which included accounts of the 50th anniversary of the association and the journal, closed with a biography of Enrique Álvarez Sainz de Aja, the only founding member still living at that time.