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O.G. Mason
Margaret K., age 45, Ireland: Rosacea
1880-1885 (ca)
Collotype, hand-coloured
Private collection of John Wood
LL/37720
PATIENT AT the Skin Clinic of the Women's Medical College. Rosacea is a chronic disease of the middle period of life. These "rosy drops" sometimes present a central point of a somewhat darker hue. In severe cases a fiery triangle may be seen on either cheek. In the most remarkable form of the disease the nose may attain the size of the fist. The eruption had troubled her more or less for six years and had been much worse than usual during the last month. She complained greatly of discomfort after eating and often vomited her food. The gastric irritability having subsided under a restricted diet, she was ordered Aug. 6, 1878, a mixture containing sulphate of iron and sulphate of magnesia, and for local application an ointment of sulphur, four parts, cosmoline, ninety-two parts. This was followed by rapid improvement, and when seen again on Sept. 17, all trace of the eruption had disappeared, and she felt much stronger and better.
[George Henry Fox (1846-1937), American pioneer in dermatology]
Poem
1.
Your rosy drops are gone,
Mother Kelley, Mother Kelley.
The golden age has dawned.
This coming century
sores and chancres, wars and bankers
will be but memory.
For every heart concurs
life is richer, life is kinder.
And science, too, avers.
2.
O Mother Mother Kelley O,
life is richer
for wars and bankers.
Piggly piggly belly O.
Life is kinder
on sores and chancres.
Gooey dewy jelly O.
Mother Kelley,
Mother Kelley.
The heart concurs
Science avers:
The golden rose is gone;
a bloody horn is spawned.
The age of thorns has dawned!
John Wood
Source
John Wood Endurance and Suffering: Narratives of Disease in the 19th Century (Edition Galerie Vevais, 2009) [Note: First edition is dated March 2007 but was published in October 2008.]
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