Dermatology Eponyms – sign – Lexicon ( V )

English physician, 1814-1888 (Fig. 2). He studied medicine at Edinburgh and Montpelier. In 1855 he was appointed lecturer on public health at St. Thomas’s Hospital. In 1875 he delivered the Croonian lectures at the Royal College of Physicians on Addison’s disease. Greenhow wrote: 1. ‘On Diphtheria,’ 1860. 2. ‘On Addison’s Disease,’ 1866. 3. ‘On Chronic Bronchitis,’ 1869. 4. ‘Croonian Lectures on Addison’s Disease,’ 1875. He also prepared the following parliamentary reports: ‘The different Proportions of Deaths from certain Diseases in different Districts in England and Wales,’ 1858 [4,5].

VAGABOND'S SIGN 1. Parasitic melanoderma; discoloration of the skin in persons of filthy habits, caused by the irritation of lice [4]. Also called Greenhow's sign 2. A pigmentary process from an itching disease like prurigo and pityriasis stimulating morbus Addisonii, particularly found in vagrants and tramps. Also called Vagrant's disease and sign.

VAGRANT'S SIGN
Also called Vagabond's sign.

VAMPIRE'S SIGN
Severe mutilating skin lesions caused by photosensitivity, neurological disruptions, liver pathology, and strange purple urine. These are indications of forms of porphyria. It is now suggested that Vlad Dracul the I5,h century slayer prince, also known as Vlad the Impaler suffered from hereditary porphyria. There is supporting evidence that some sufferers craved blood due to iron deficiency. Coupled with the fact that the disease can he manifested with painful cutaneous photosensitivity, allowing some victims to only come out after dark caused them to be sadly mistaken for yampires. Also called Dracula's sign [7].

VLAD DRACUL
Vlad III the Impaler. Prince of Wallachia, dynasty of Basarab. (1431-1476) (Fig. 3). It's best known for his resistance against the Ottoman Empire and its expansion. His postmortem moniker of "Impaler" originated in his killing opponents by impalement. In Turkish, he was known as "Kazikli Voyvoda" which means "Impaler Prince". Was born in Sighisoara, Transylvania (part of the Kingdom of Hungary at the time).

VERDIGRIS SIGN
Free flow of saliva, bluish or greenish vomited material, strong coppery taste. A sign of poisoning with copper salts [8]. Also known as Salivation sign.

VERONAL SIGN
Lips and finger-tips blue, drooping of eyelids, and usually loss of control of bladder and bowels. An indication of barbitonum poisoning [9]. Also known as Barbitonum sign.

VINCENT'S SIGN
A pupil which is miotic and responds to accommodation effort, however it does not respond to light [10][11][12]. Also known as Argyll Robertson's sign or pupil.

DOUGLAS MORAY COOPER LAMB ARGYLL ROBERTSON
Scotch ophthalmologist and surgeon, 1837-1909 (Fig. 4). After earning his degree in 1857 from the University of St Andrews, he went to Berlin to study under Albrecht von Graefe. Robertson spent most of his medical career in Edinburgh as an eye surgeon at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and teacher of ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh. For a while he was honorary eye physician to Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. Robertson made several contributions in the field of ophthalmology; in 1863 he researched the effects on the eye made by physostigmine, an extract from the Calabar bean (Physostigma venenosum), which is found in tropical Africa. He correctly predicted that physostigmine would become very important in the treatment of eye disorders. He also described a symptom of neurosyphilis that affects the pupils of the eye, which is known today as Argyll Robertson pupils [10,11].

HENRI VINCENT
French physician, 1862-1950. His name is associated with Vincent's Disease or Vincent s Angina. It is also  widely known as Trench Mouth, due to an outbreak in soldiers in trenches during World War One. Borrelia vincentii used to be spread out worldwide, but is now mainly in countries that are not very developed [10,11].