The same skin disorder was passed down to his children and grandchildren. They made a living by presenting their disease and claiming to be a new race of people. This was the first case of ichthyosis ever recorded. There are two ways of getting this disease. The disease can be genetically inherited from a parent or caused by a genetic mutation resulting in the inactivation of certain enzymes.
Normal skin regenerates about every fourteen days.
The cells originate from the basal epidermis and migrate to the surface. As it migrates, the cells differentiate and at the surface the old cells shed. Normal skin sheds whole individual skin cells or small pieces of microscopic whole skin cell. This process is invisible to the naked eye. For patients with ichthyosis the shedding is visible.