Journal : Journal of cutaneous medicine and diseases of the skin ; vol. 1 (of four).
London : John Churchill & Sons, 1867.
Description : 60-63 p., [1 l.] pl. ; ill.: 1 phot. ; 21 cm.
Photograph : albumen (oval format) mounted on card.
Subject : Skin — Neurofibromatosis Type 1 ; tibial pseudarthrosis.
Notes :
Dr. Anderson's nude patient, a Jamaican native in his forties, is posed with his back to the camera to show the mass of tumors nodulating his torso. His deformed right leg does not reach the floor and is supported by a box. The diminution and tibial pseudarthrosis of the leg was caused by an ancient fracture that failed to heal properly, but due, also, to the complications that arise from neurofibromatosis. The studio setting of the photograph matches the CDVs of Jamaican natives found in a "Photography album documenting the Morant Bay Rebellion, Jamaica 1865," archived in the Graphic Arts Collection of Princeton University Library, with an attribution to the photographer Adolphe Duperly (1801-1865). However, I have seen equally convincing images from another contemporary Kingston photographer, J. S. Thompson. It is a striking composition and one of the earliest published photographs of Von Recklinghausen's disease. Doctor Anderson was born in Jamaica and communicated on tropical diseases, particularly yellow fever in the West Indies.