In fact acne is not a modern disease at all as can be seen from a wealth of articles and books, mainly from eminent doctors and physicians, published from ancient to modern times.

In 1825, for example, an article in The Medical Recorder describes acne as ‘Pimples on the Face’ and further defined as:

“A number of little hard, inflamed tubercles (acne simplex), interspersed with minute black specks (acne punctata), produced by the sebaceous matter filling the orifices of the follicles, form this disease. They proceed gradually and at different times to suppuration. … Small pearl-like tubercles are sometimes observed in the skin, produced by the deficiency of an opening by which the fluid can be discharged. They seldom attain the size of a wart, rarely suppurate, and generally disappear by absorption. With regard to the treatment of pimples on the face, frequent bathing, and gentle friction of the parts with warm water and soap, are the best local remedies; repellents, as lead water, do no good. The inflammation is sometimes connected with disorder of the stomach in its most common form, in young people between the ages of 18 and 25.”

Of treatment (do not try this at home!) the doctor says: “I have removed it by giving half a grain of calomel, and a quarter of a grain of blue vitriol, thrice a day. The tubercles in a few days disappear, leaving only a brown mark.”

Acne, then, was thought to be associated with misuse of alcohol, as Mr. Plumbe says in The Medical Recorder: “When it attacks the nose in old drunkards, or those addicted to the pleasures of the table, sometimes three or four follicles are inflamed, which being repeated by continued excesses, the nose acquires a red, swollen, and tuberculated appearance. If called early, the puncture of the lancet discharges the matter, and moderate diet, with purgatives, confirms the cure. Friction upon the nose, by means of soft brushes, and soap and water, diminishes the swelling and redness, and improves its appearance.”

Outlines of Human Pathology by Herbert Mayo in 1835, defines acne as “Chronic inflammation of the sebaceous follicles, common in youth and manhood, characterized by isolated acuminated pustules, most usually developed on the shoulders, sternal and scapular regions, the skin of which looks dense and unctuous, and more rarely on the face. These pustules are succeeded by livid or violet-coloured spots, by tuberculated indurations of the same or of a milky white hue, almost always intermingled with the accumulations of sebaceous matter with black points, vulgarly called worms, and with follicular enlargements.”