Plate V Ichthyosis Fox, George Henry  (American, 1846-1937)

Photohistorian Stanley Burns writes, "George Henry Fox was the most prolific publisher of dermatologic photographic works in the nineteenth century, achieving worldwide recognition… His work, highlighted in this series, contains some of the most dramatic and artistic visual presentations of skin disease ever published." In his preface Fox writes, "A series of illustrated articles on certain skin diseases which are apt to occur in infancy and childhood appeared in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children a year ago, and are now published in book form."

This monograph contains 12 fine photogravures including a stunning (and disturbing) image of a woman nursing a baby that is labeled "Syphilis Hereditaria." The mother and child both have dramatic skin lesions reflecting the fact that they both had syphilis.

Reproduced / Exhibited

Therapeutic Gazette. 22 (1898): 65.

References

Burns. Skin Pictures: Masterpiece Photographs of Nineteenth Century Dermatology (New York 2005)

Burns. Ophthalmology: A Photographic History… Disease and Pathology (New York 2009) 11-12

Franz Ehring. Skin Diseases: 5 Centuries of Scientific Illustration (New York 1989)