I was reading about Hallermann–Streiff syndrome this morning, and was a little surprised by the huge gap between Aubry (who first discussed elements of it in 1893, though only partially and in the context of congenital alopecia) and Hallermann (1948) and Streiff (1950) (after both of whom the syndrome was named).
And so I went a-looking, to see what I could find. I searched Hathitrust for “congenital alopecia”, ordered the results by date, and was so amazed by the first result (and also by the fact that it wasn’t visible on the Internet) that I decided to turn it into a webpage.
So, here’s the link to my typed-up version of “Congenital Alopecia as an Expression of Atavism” by James Nevins Hyde, M.D. (1908).
Of course, 1908 was far too early for Hyde to have a modern-feeling ‘syndrome’ framework to place his observations inside. But, to be fair, I think he did as well as he could: the places where he reverts to atavism or to reversion to lower mammalian or amphibious types feel almost like dated science fiction to our modern syndrome-attuned ears.
So maybe dismissing all physicians of that era would be somewhat unfair: Hyde did the best he could to capture, cross-reference and consider the condition, with clear and careful photographs that are useful even now. And maybe the websites discussing the history of HSS should mention Hyde’s contribution?