White-Spot Disease

The designation "white-spot," as applied to a definite clinical entity referable to the skin, was first employed by Westberg in 1901. He used the term "white-spot" merely as a descriptive adjective, qualifying a supposedly unknown dermatosis. In 1903, Johnston and Sherwell published the second paper on the subject, giving it the title of "White-Spot Disease." In this paper reference was made to Westberg's case and to Montgomery's case of white-spot disease which was exhibited before the American Dermatological Association in 1901, a report of which case was later published in full. Sherwell subsequently exhibited another case of this disease before the New York Dermatological Society in 1904. By that time a number of dermatoses, characterized by the presence of white spots of one kind or another, were reported in the dermatologic literature of America and Europe. During the past ten years a very substantial literary structure has reared itself on