Historical background of itch

• Verfasst von: Weisshaar, Elke [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Eckart, Wolfgang U. [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Bernhard, Jeffrey D. [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Historical background of itch
• Verf.angabe: Elke Weisshaar, Wolfgang U. Eckart, Jeffrey D. Bernhard
• Jahr: 2015
• Umfang: 14 S.
• Teil: year:2015
• Teil: pages:1-14
• Teil: extent:14
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 06.07.2020
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Cowan, Alan, 1942 - Pharmacology of itch
• Ort Quelle: Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer, 2015
• Jahr Quelle: 2015
• Band/Heft Quelle: (2015), Seite 1-14
• ISBN Quelle: 978-3-662-44605-8
• DOI: doi:10.1007/978-3-662-44605-8_1
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Sach-SW: Itch
• Sach-SW: Medical history
• Sach-SW: Prurigo
• Sach-SW: Pruritus
• K10plus-PPN: 1703728262

Abstract

Itch as a disease, and especially as a symptom, was the object of medical and scientific curiosity for centuries. The reluctance of historians to focus on the history of itch relates to its nature as a subjective symptom. After all, how can historians have known what itch really felt like in previous centuries? Since the establishment of dermatology as an independent discipline of medicine in the middle of the nineteenth century, itch has become a subject of investigation in its own right. This chapter summarises research we conducted on the medical history of itch in ancient medicine and up through the twentieth century.