History of Latin American Dermatology

NOTES ONTHE HISTORYOF PERUVIANDERMATOLOGYLUIS VALDIVIA BLONDET1. Época precolombina■ Pre-Columbian periodThere is no evidence that pre-Inca and Inca civilizations had writing; somediseases suffered by the populations of that time are known through anthropomorphichuaco pottery of the Moche, Huari, Lambayeque, Chimú andMochica cultures, all of them pre-Inca, which allow us to deduce the representationof pathologies such as uta (Figure 1), Peruvian wart (Figure2), albinism(Figure3), facial paralysis (Figure4), elephantiasis (Figure 5),hypothyroidism with leishmaniasis (Figure 6), “saddle-nose” congenitalsyphilis (Figure 7), harelip (Figure 8), and others. Also, there still persistQuechua (Inca) words employed to name different pathologies, such as sirkiand ticti for Peruvian wart and ccara for pinta.The study of bone injuries in mummies of the Paracas culture seems to indicatethat the origin of syphilis is American; it is also known that they practicedtrepanations and bone implants (Figure 9).The beliefs of these people included magical religious concepts not very differentfrom European beliefs of that time; they saw the cause of disease as divinepunishment for sin and protected themselves with magic or occultism, andwith a therapeutic arsenal that was much larger than that of Europe, so muchso, that Philip II, King of Spain, sent Francisco Hernández to study medicinesof the Americas. Hernán Cortés, conqueror of Mexico, had such confidence intheir medicine and in American healers that he wrote to Charles V asking himto refrain from sending European doctors to America, since he deemed themunnecessary.The native doctor who treated the Inca and the nobility was known by thename of hampi camayoc (hampi: medicine; camayoc: he who practices), andthe peoples’ doctor was called camasca.Most drugs came from the plant kingdom; some of them have made it to the present:cinchona or cascarilla (for fever and tertians), ironwood (for removing blotches fromthe face), Peruvian pepper tree (for headaches), pineapple and tamarind (purgatives),Figure 1. MocheCulture. HuacorepresentingtegumentaryleishmaniasisFigure 2. MocheCulture.Representation ofPeruvian wart357