Community dermatology inclusive of leprosy: its past present and future

The archives of leprosy and its global history are currently evolving in Oxford. A collection of documents and books are housed in the historical library of Sir William Osler under the heading of ‘Public Health before and after Osler’ and the history of leprosy can be found on http://www.leprosyhistory.org. A striking feature of the old books is their attention to the designation ‘Lepra’ and the evolution of not just leprosy but of the other differential diagnoses of the eighteenth and nineteenth century such as psoriasis.. Even in the twentieth century, the development of a major interest in Oxford led by Weddell was the innervation of the skin first in psoriasis and then in leprosy, joint meetings with Weddell, Cochrane, Browne, Rees and others over patients with leprosy, to the building of the Cochrane Annex and the work of Colin MacDougal in the Department of Dermatology.