Kristiania : Det Steenske Bogtrykkeri, 1888.
Description : [4 p.], 1-155 p., [4 l.] pl. ; ill.: 4 phots., figs. ; 24 cm.
Photographs : 4 leaves, collotypes.
Subject : Skin — Anomalous and rare diseases, Norway.
Notes :
Med Hensyn til de, et Par af Sygehistorierne ledsagende Lystryk vil jeg udtrykkelig bemærke, at det ingenlunde er min Mening, at disse Illustrationer giver noget klart Billede af Sygdommen, hvorefter man skulde kunne diagnosticere den. De er meget mere kun bestemt til med en Gang at udrydde selv hos dem, der ikke har Lyst eller Taalmodighed til at gjennemlæse en Afhandling som nærværende, den gamle, tilvandte, men saare feilagtige Forestilling om Lichen ruber. Og dertil tror jeg, disse Billeder er vel skikkede. Det er en Selvfølge, at kun de mest markerede Efflorescenser kommer tilsyne paa et Fotografi, medens de mindre fremtrædende og alle finere Enkeltheder gaar tabt.—Page 25.
In reference to the collotypes that accompany two of the case histories, I give notice that it is in no way my opinion that these illustrations give a clear depiction of the disease from which one would be able to make a diagnosis. They are intended more for eliminating the old, standard, very erroneous conception of Lichen ruber for those without the desire or patience to read through a treatise such as this. And this is where I think these pictures are well adapted. Of course, only the most marked effloresences are visible in a photograph, while all the less prominent and finer detail is lost.
After completing his medical studies, Boeck underwent a scholar's pilgrimage that included seven months of post-graduate work in Vienna with the master, Ferdinand von Hebra (1816-1880). With his uncle, Carl Wilhelm Boeck (1808-1875), he helped establish dermatovenerology as a modern discipline in Norway. Both Boecks held the chair of medicine at Christiania University. Cæsar Boeck was also a lover of the fine arts and in 1917 published a treatise on Rembrandt titled, Rembrandt og Saskia i deres hjem. He is remembered for work contributing to the identification and description of sarcoidosis (Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease).
This monograph is the title of a series of papers on rare disease of Norway first published in Norsk Magazin for Laegevidenskaben. There are five disease topics in five sections titled, "Lichen ruber," "Acne frontalis s. necrotica," Pityriasis rosea," "Pityriasis pilaris," and "Urticaria perstans." The largest section by far is the one on lichen ruber and it is illustrated by three of the four photographs. The fourth photograph illustrates the section on necrotizing acne and the image was republished the following year in Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis with a German translation of the text. The section on pityriasis pilaria was also translated into German in 1889 and published with its five engravings in volume 8 of the Monatshefte für praktische Dermatologie (pages 97-116).
