The History of Allergies (and Other Excuses for Vampire Limitations)

[brightknightie]

In the present day, FK has Nick disguise his inability to tolerate sunlight behind a generic claim of "allergies."  While of course allergies and skin conditions have always been around, I wondered, when was the idea of allergies invented?  What did past generations call allergies?  When could Nick have begun using allergies as an excuse, and

Comments

[greerwatson]

Does The Canon of Medicine actually distinguish skin cancer from other types of rash?

reportedly, yes

[brightknightie]

"Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine (1025) described treatments for a variety of skin conditions, including skin cancer. The preferred medication it recommended was zinc oxide." - The Wikipedia entry on the "History of Dermatology"

The Canon of Medicine is five volumes of antique medical theory; I have not read it. Its Wikipedia entry is here, the entry for its author here, and that for the history of dermatology here.

I have not yet been able to access a copy of the Historical Atlas of Dermatology and Dermatologists in person. The limited pages available through Amazon's "look inside" feature skip over the entry for Avicenna.

I was looking up the history of allergic reactions, not of cancer, of course. Do you propose that skin cancer would be an explanation Nick could offer?

Re: reportedly, yes

[greerwatson]

"Do you propose that skin cancer would be an explanation Nick could offer?"

No, I was just curious. Early medical practitioners were quite well able to describe a number of different kinds of rash; and I'm sure they recognized the difference between, say, measles and acne. I was wondering, though, how far they distinguished skin cancer from other dermatological ailments, and whether they were aware of the difficulty of treating it with the methods they had. Zinc oxide is, after all, an excellent remedy for many types of rash. It would not be unreasonable for a medieval doctor to apply it more broadly, if only just in the hope that it might help.

Re: reportedly, yes

[brightknightie]

>"I was wondering, though, how far they distinguished skin cancer from other dermatological ailments, and whether they were aware of the difficulty of treating it with the methods they had."

I imagine that their inability to cure skin cancer did not distinguish itself from their inability to cure anything else. ~wry grin~

From what I've read, with the false theory of humors that they had inherited from the Greeks in the way, medieval and Renaissance European university-trained physicians achieved what little success they did through the placebo effect and luck. If you had a real medical issue, you'd usually be better off visiting the local wise woman or clever man for a received folk remedy ("witchcraft") than to be bled, heated, chilled or whatever in accord with the revered physician's reading of your astrological chart and your humors from your urine.

(However, something interesting that I ran across in the Historical Atlas of Dermatology and Dermatologists is that while the surviving ancient authorities described conditions

[malinaldarose]

Huh. Interesting.

[brightknightie]

The FKFicFest prompt I received, while very nice, does not seem to include any opportunity for historical research, so I had to make up an opportunity from elsewhere. ;-)

[malinaldarose]

One takes one's research where one can get it.

[greerwatson]

"The FKFicFest prompt I received, while very nice,...."

Well, I guess you'll just have to take your complaint up with the moderator who paired you with that prompt. :)

[pj1228]

For some time, it was thought to be a disease only of the upper classes (who perhaps had leisure and means to have it diagnosed and treated, unlike poorer sufferers).

This may also be explained by the so called hygiene hypothesis. It explains why allergies have been on the rise since the industrialization. Better hygiene of the upper classes, especially the increasing use of desinfectants in recent times is responsible for a down-regulated immune system, while people in less sterile environments are exposed to more pathogens that keep the immune system busy and therefore strong.

I agree that Nick's allegy excuse works well in the 2nd half of the 20th century when allergies became more common in the population.
I would resort to the terms "skin condition" and "intolerance" when referring to his restrictions in previous centuries.