Writing on the back of a female patient
Démence Précoce Catatonique Dermographisme. L Trepsat, 1893.
From 'Nouvelle Iconographie de la
Salpêtrière', 1904. During the second
hald of the 19th century, the belief spread that the phenomenon of
dermatographism (or 'dermographism', or 'skin writing') was linked
to hysteria and other mental or nervous disorders. Here a female
patient at the Salpêtrière hospital in
Paris has had her diagnosis 'Démence précoce' (dementia praecox)
'written' on her back.