Woman with 'epidemic eczema', four weeks from commencement

Black and white, half length photograph of the female patient showing, four weeks from commencement, a condition termed 'epidemic eczema' by Thomas Dixon Savill, Medical Superintendant, Paddington Infirmary, London. This skin condition was a form of contagious dermatitis which Savill had observed in the Paddington Infirmary and other medical institutions in 1891. By the beginning of 1892 it was estimated that he alone had treated 163 cases from Paddington Infirmary and the adjacent workhouse. The infection would normally last seven or eight weeks and take the form of a dermatitis sometimes accompanied by the formation of vesicles, always resulting in desquamation of cuticle.