Pestenspellen

Pestenspellen is a historical Dutch term used to describe peeling or desquamation of the skin observed in some patients during plague outbreaks. The word combines pest (plague) with pellen (to peel). In early modern medical texts from the Netherlands and nearby regions, pestenspellen was noted as a skin manifestation in a minority of cases, often described alongside fever, buboes, or systemic illness. It was presented as patches of skin that peeled away or became desquamated, rather than as a single, distinctive lesion.

Clinical interpretation in historical sources varied. Some writers associated pestenspellen with the severity of the disease, vascular damage, or general debility accompanying septicemic forms of plague. Others treated it as a secondary or nonspecific sign of massive illness. There is no consensus on its precise pathophysiology, and modern scholars generally view it as a historical description rather than a defined dermatologic entity.

Modern status and significance differ from its historical context. The term is rarely used in contemporary medical literature, and diagnosis of plague today relies on microbiological methods (such as culture and molecular testing) rather than cutaneous signs. Desquamation more commonly appears as a feature in a variety of other conditions, and not as a specific marker of plague.

See also: plague, Yersinia pestis, desquamation, historical medicine.