John Addison Fordyce

Biography

• Born on February 16, 1858
• 1881 – Chicago Medical College
• 1886 – Traveled to Europe working with Moriz Kaposi (Vienna) and Jean Alfred Fournier (Paris)
• 1889 – Specialist in dermatology and syphilis in New York
• Professor at Bellevue Hospital College
• Died June 4, 1925

Medical Eponyms

Fox–Fordyce disease (1902) [aka Apocrine miliaria]

A chronic itchy papular condition occurring in areas of the skin with apocrine glands especially the axilla of young women.

Fordyce spots (Fordyce disease)

Multiple yellow papules on the lips or buccal mucosa representing extopic sebaceaous glands. Lesions may also occur on the labia minora, glans penis and inner surface of the foreskin. enlarged ectopic sebacous glands in the mucosa of the mouth (lips, cheek, tongue) and genitals.

Fordyce lesion (Angiokeratoma of the scrotum)

Benign scrotal angiomata seen in the elderly, characterized by multiple, spherical, reddish to black, elevated lesions rarely over 4 mm in diameter, which usually follow the course of the scrotal veins.

Major Publications

• Fordyce JA. Angiokeratoma of the scrotum. J Cutan Genitourin Dis. 1896;14; 81-87. [Fordyce lesion]
• Fordyce JA. A peculiar affection of the mucous membrane of the lips and the oral cavity. J Cutan Genitourin Dis. 1896; 14; 413-419. [Fordyce disease]
• Fox GH, Fordyce JA. Two cases of a rare papular disease affecting the axillary region. J Cutan Genitourin Dis 1902; 20: 1–5. [Reprint: Arch Dermatol. 2002;138(1):16. JAMA] [Fox–Fordyce disease]

Controversies

Fordyce spots: Not the first physician to have seen the benign anomaly of Fordyce spots, but the first physician so observant as to recognize this condition as having never been reported and by doing so he gained lasting eponymous credit

Fordyce lesion: Similarly scrotal angiokeratoma was first described by Ernest Wyndham Cottle (1847-1919) in the St. George’s Hospital Reports (1878). Many names were attributed to the condition (mainly described on hands and feet) others described similar lesions using various terms such as naevus à pernions (Bazin 1862), dermatite de congelazione (Breda 1881), verrucous naevi etc. Termed angiokeratoma by Mibelli (1889).

References

Biography

• MacKee GM. John Addison Fordyce. Bull N Y Acad Med. 1925 Jul;1(5):204–6.
• Pusey WA. John Addison Fordyce, M.D. 1858-1925. Arch Derm Syphilol. 1925;12(2):268-272

Eponymous terms

• Anderson W. A case of angeio-keratoma. British Journal of Dermatology, 1898; 10: 113–117.
• Buehler S, Itin P. Angiokeratomas Scroti Associated with Angiokeratomas of the Eyelids: Coincidence or One Entity? A Case Report and Review of the Literature. Dermatology. 2015;231(3):213-6
• Cottle W. Unusual warts. St George’s Hosp Rep 1877; 9: 758
• Mibelli V: Di una nouva forma di cheratosi ‘angiokeratoma’. G Ital Mal Ven 1889;30: 285–301.
• Bazin A: Affections cutanées artificielles (naevus à pernions). Paris, Delahaye, 1862.
• Breda A: Dermatite de congelazione. G Ital Mal Ven 1881;16:159.