DERMABRASION OF THE ACNE PIT

HISTORY PIT, SCAR, and blemish have since antiquity been the bane of patient and physician. The oldest medical document extant prescribed an abrasive "to make the face smooth" (Papyrus Ebers, 1,500 B. C.): Sig: Water from the qebu plant Meal of alabaster * Fresh Abt grain Mix in honey, make into a pap, mix in human milk and anoint the face therewith. Thirty-four centuries later finds this prescription still in use with but minor changes (Unna, 1900 A. D.): Cremor gelanthi Sapon Pulv. pumicis * * Note the similar abrasive materials. In relatively recent times, the following methods have been advocated for the removal of pits, tattoos, scars, pigmentations (including chloasma), milia, ephelides, lentigines, nevi, verrucae, seborrheic keratoses, keloids, furuncles, wrinkles, rhinophyma, and "enlarged pores." Some workers have published the details of various methods; the work of others is known to us personally. Acupuncture (Needling) Variot (1888)—Tattoos (10% tannic acid followed