Letter to the Editor regarding: ‘‘History of dermatology: the study of skin diseases over the centuries’’^☆,^☆☆

Dear Editor,

We passionately studied the article named ‘‘History of dermatology: the study of skin diseases over the centuries’’.¹ In our view, this is an outstanding manuscript that will be acclaimed by scholars and readers.

This article reviews and inquires about skin diseases over the centuries. This is a comprehensive study with very detailed and useful tips in which the authors have reviewed various works. However, it also has an important drawback as the authors did not refer to the medical tradition of skin diseases in medieval Islamic countries. The medieval medicine in the Islamic world, which began with the movement to translate Greek, Iranian, and Indian works, could flourish by the arrival of individuals such as Rhazes, Haly Abbas and Avicenna.²,³ Each of the important physicians of the era allocated chapter(s) of their works to types, causes, symptoms, and treatment of skin, hair, and nail diseases, including psoriasis, warts, vitiligo, smallpox, blemishes, and leprosy. Avicenna’s The Canon of Medicine and Rhazes’s Al-Hawi were examples of many works with detailed discussions in separate chapters.⁴-⁶ For instance, Avicenna allocated separate chapters of the Canon of Medicine to skin diseases, hair diseases, and skin color diseases. Furthermore, he considered a chapter in this book for makeup in which he described nail diseases and issues relating to makeup and beauty, as well as fitness in detail.⁵,⁶

We hope that this explanation has been able to show the course of the history of medicine in the Middle Ages, its importance, and also to fill the gap in the article.

• Financial support
  None declared.

References

• ¹
  Ferreira IG, Weber MB, Bonamigo RR. History of dermatology: the study of skin diseases over the centuries. An Bras Dermatol. 2021;96:332-45.
• ²
  Lindberg DC, Shank MH. The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 2, Medieval Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2013.
• ³
  Lindberg DC. The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, Prehistory to A.D. 1450. 2nd edition Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2010.
• ⁴
  Al-Razi MZ. Kitab Al-hawi fi l-tibb: (Rhazes’ Liber Continens). Osmania Oriental Publications Bureau; 1955.
• ⁵
  Bakhtiar L, Nasr SH. Canon of Medicine 5 Volume Set. Kazi Publications, Incorporated; 2014.
• ⁶
  Koh G. The canon of medicine. BMJ. 2009;339:b5358.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  18 Oct 2021
• Date of issue
  2021

History

• Received
  12 May 2021
• Accepted
  9 June 2021
• Published
  21 July 2021