Posts tagged acne

A Pomatum to remove Redness, or Pimples in the Face. Boar’s cheek starts off a very dark colour, even inside the mouth. To boil it long enough that it becomes “tolerably white” would probably take at least long enough to break down a fair amount of the coarser proteins. Personally, I tend to avoid smearing broken-down boar cheek and veal chunks onto my face when I’m trying to rid myself of acne, but that’s just my own preference… The Toilet of Flora. J. Murray, 1779.

A Pomatum to remove Redness, or Pimples in the Face.

Boar’s cheek starts off a very dark colour, even inside the mouth. To boil it long enough that it becomes “tolerably white” would probably take at least long enough to break down a fair amount of the coarser proteins.

Personally, I tend to avoid smearing broken-down boar cheek and veal chunks onto my face when I’m trying to rid myself of acne, but that’s just my own preference…

The Toilet of Flora. J. Murray, 1779.

Extreme hypertrophy of the nose and forehead

Both resultant of acne vulgaris. Extreme forehead hypertrophy was caused by repeated attempts to cauterize old hypertrophic scars. Both hypertrophies and keloids have a high rate of recurrence after removal.

Elementary Manual of Regional Topical Dermatology. C.F. Marshall, 1871.

Acne Keloid Keloid formed over bacterial acne, which likely would have cleared up on its own. Keloidal scarring is sometimes idiopathic (with no known cause), but most of the time it’s due to contamination of the wound during the healing process. If an infection doesn’t develop, but the contamination is still present (like, say, if you worked in a coal mine, had dust over a particularly bad pimple, and rubbed it into the comedo accidentally), the body produces an excess of hypertrophied scar tissue, and creates a keloid. Unlike the acne pustules, keloids will not go away without surgical removal. An Introduction to Dermatology. Norman Walker, 1911.

Acne Keloid

Keloid formed over bacterial acne, which likely would have cleared up on its own.

Keloidal scarring is sometimes idiopathic (with no known cause), but most of the time it’s due to contamination of the wound during the healing process. If an infection doesn’t develop, but the contamination is still present (like, say, if you worked in a coal mine, had dust over a particularly bad pimple, and rubbed it into the comedo accidentally), the body produces an excess of hypertrophied scar tissue, and creates a keloid. Unlike the acne pustules, keloids will not go away without surgical removal.

An Introduction to Dermatology. Norman Walker, 1911.