66 | THE HISTORY OF HOSPITAL DERMATOLOGY AND VENEREOLOGY DATES BACK TO ANCIENT TIMES AND HAS A BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD

L. Valenzano |

To better understand and evaluate the role of the hospital dermatologist, we must go back a long way—namely, to the origins of dermatology as a medical specialty, since that is when the long and winding path of training and evolution for the medical specialist, and thus for the hospital dermatologist, began. We will therefore trace together—albeit in broad strokes—the key events and most significant figures in the complex and fascinating history of our discipline, following the major stages of the evolution of the medical arts (Instinctive, Priestly, Magical, Folk, and Scientific-Technological).