History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Dermatology in Colombia“thus, the so-called ‘French disease,’ ‘Neapolitan disease,’ ‘snake-like disease,’‘Lazarene disease’ or ‘courtesans’ disease’ was in actual fact the disease of an Americannature”; and the chronicler also noted in a communication sent to the King of Spain regardingthe spread of syphilis in the new lands and its arrival in the Iberian Peninsula:“In the Indies... great renown attached to holy wood, which the Indians call guayacán...The main virtue of this wood is that it cures the buboe disease... From its wood they takethin splinters... and they boil its shavings in a large amount of water... and with the waterhaving diminished by boiling... the ill take it and drink it on certain days in the morning,after fasting... and many sufferers from this disease doubtlessly heal. Your Majesty cantake it for certain that this disease arrived in Spain from the Indies.” It is possible thatthe Treponema underwent mutations when acting massively in Europe, increasing itsvirulence in an environment and a population that had been virgin to it up to 1493 2 .The presence of tuberculosis in the pre-Hispanic Americas has now been vastly documentedwith ADN techniques; bone lesions have been found in remains of the Muiscaculture in a relatively high number of cases, which leads to the assumption that it significantlyaffected these communities 6 .Chagas disease, produced by Trypanosoma cruzi and transmitted by triatomineos, isexclusive to the Americas.In addition to these diseases, the health of the population was affected by arrows poisonedwith herbs (Ogendeia terstroeniflora, a Moracea and Strychnos toxicaria) and toxinsfrom animals such as frogs (Dendrobates), spiders (Migale) and snakes. Also presentwere other non infectious diseases such as congenital hypothyroidism, goiter, harelip, albinism,dwarfism and the pilimicturition (dermoid cyst of the bladder) seen in Popayán.Medicinal plants and therapeutic methodsIndians classified plants into different kinds, which we could summarize as: plants ofknowledge (psychotropic), bitter (providing energy), purgative, stimulating, preventiveand medicinal in the strict sense 11 . Indian knowledge of herbs significantly contributedto therapeutics; plants that were considered sacred and medicinal were, for example, annato(Bixa orellana), employed to prevent sunburn; chica (Bignonia chica), as an insectrepellent and to prevent snake and bat bites; otoba (Myristicacea), against scabies andfor hair care, a use which remains unaltered today; among the Cubeo and the Macuna,chili pepper (Capsicum), employed as a treatment against acne “to maintain the face freeof pimples and spots; the juice of the chili pepper is absorbed through the nose througha tube made of leaves for the skin to exude its natural fat”; to cure vaginal myiasis, theyplaced a plaster of Diachylon magistrale which caused the larva to die, to be squeezedout later; coca (Erythroxylon coca), chewed (mambeo) “endowed the body with extra resistance”;holy wood and guayacán, used against buboe; the fruit of coralito, “wetted andrubbed against leprosy lesions or the spots that emerge from the body, which some callempeine, others carate and other similar names, very foul and disgusting, removes anddestroys them and leaves the flesh and skin clean without any sign of disease...” 12 ; tobaccowas perhaps the most influential during the Colony, used against bites and woundscaused by poisoned arrows, for cicatrization, hemostasis and cauterization 3, 13 ; caraña(palm resin), for purulent sores or recent wounds, and buboe herbs, with the powder ofwhich they achieved epitelization in wounds; sorrel, against murine typhus, and quiniaagainst hematomata 9 .In addition to plants, Indians employed animal substances and elements in treatments,such as, for example, a mixture of tallow mass, cardenillo and toasted corn flouror powder from the shells of crabs and bencenuco to heal sores; manatee bones wereused for hemostasis and bee honey as a local antiseptic. Animal teeth, fangs and clawswere used as amulets to prevent disease. Against bites by worms and some scorpions, as113