Henry Head, herpes zoster and the graphic development of his 'scheme of the dermatomes in man

In the archives of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) are five large volumes containing hundreds of the original sketches and photographs created by Sir Henry Head, FRS (1861–1940), physician to the London Hospital, editor of Brain from 1910 until 1925, and at that time one of England's foremost neurologists (figure 1). A few further original sketches are in the Wellcome Library, and doubtless there may be some others in collections elsewhere.

Head's sketches, drawn free hand in their entirety or as additions to preprinted body outlines, depict the cutaneous eruption suffered by some of the 450 patients with herpes zoster infection 'that have come under...personal observation' (Head and Campbell, p396).1 Many of the sketches formed the basis for the printed illustrations in Head's famous publications on zoster which appeared in Brain over a hundred years ago and which proved crucial to 'one of the...

from # All Medicine by Alexandros G. Sfakianakis via alkiviadis.1961 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2w5f9rN