History of Latin American Dermatology

LUIS DAVID PIERINIthis dermatology, which began when Baldomero Sommer presented his doctoral thesis,in 1884. It should be pointed out that Sommer was the first professor to teach skin diseasesin Argentina, starting in 1892.Marcial Ignacio Quiroga, gifted with a many-faceted personality, and a member of theMedicine and History academies, described the evolution of leprosy in Argentina in aprofoundly mature manner.■ The Indian groups: medical botany, medicalgeography, pathologiesThe word aboriginal comes from the Latin aborigines, composed of ab, meaning from,and origo, origins, the latter in turn from oriri, to be born. Hence, “from the origins.” Theword “aboriginals” is applied to the people originally inhabiting a region.The flood of immigration unleashed terrible epidemics in the midst of these originalgroupings. One of the first diseases to spread in epidemic fashion was smallpox. The Indianscalled it the Spaniards’ illness or malady, since according to their traditions, possiblynot unfounded, smallpox was unknown to them until the Spaniards arrived in America.“The horror these Indians feel for it is indescribable, and rightly so, because when it enterstheir tents, so many die that their settlements are wiped out,” a chronicler wrote.Like smallpox, leprosy and tuberculosis were – according to oral traditions – diseasesunknown before the conquest.Following Antonio Fiz Fernández, with small modifications on our part, we place theIndians of these lands under the following headings:I. Brazilio-Guaraní and the Chaco Littoral group, members of the Guaraní family. Itincludes, in addition to the Guaraní themselves, the Guaycurú (Toba, Mocobí or Mocoví,Abipone, Pilaga), Mataco, Wichi and Charrúa, these latter linked to the Pampa (Indians,not plains).II. Groups of the Northwest: these encompass the Omahauca, the Apatama of thePuna and the Calchaquí Diaguita, with a powerful Inca influence.III. The group of the Andes and Central Hills is formed by the Pehuenche, the Huarpe,the Comechingón of Córdoba, the Sanavirón of the Río Dulce or the Río Negro, the Tonocotéof Santiago del Estero, the Lule and Vilela of Tucumán and the Peri of the mountainrange, all of them under Inca cultural sway.IV. Pampas: including the Querandí, Pampa and Puelche.V. Patagón or Tehuelche.VI. Extreme Magellanic south: Ona, Yaghan and Alacaluf.Great naturalists and excellent empiricists, guided by recognized herbalists, these Indiansapplied botany, which was part of the landscape, to the needs of their time. In thefollowing pages we shall set forth, in a summarized fashion, the features of these groups.■ Brazilio-Guaraní and and Chaco Chaco Littoral group Littoral groupThese constituted the most populous Indian group in the country. The historian Pedrode Angelis believes that Guaraní comes from Gua, painting, Ra, stained, and Ni, a pluralmarker. In other words, they were those stained with paint, i.e. those who paint themselves.He writes: “They cover their bodies with black, red and yellow paint, to protectthemselves from the rigors of the sun, akin to the current sun filters and blocks.”The wildness of their habitat prevented Spain from even knowing of the existence ofsome of these tribes which were spread through the immense virgin forest. Therefore the20