The first descriptions of the disease are found again in the Textbook of Dermatology, published in 1874, "On disease of the skin, including exanthemata" London - New Sydenham Society, Hebra F.-Kaposi M.

The term "Xeroderma Pigmentosum" was coined from the hungarian dermatologist Moritz Kaposi wanting in such a way to indicate a characterized disease picture from pigmented and dry skin.
Hereditary disease, trasmitted with recessive autosomical modality, the XP is characterized from extreme photosensivity that causes strict and premature damages to level of the cutis and of the eyes. Its incidence is of 1:250000 in Europe and USA, while in Japan the relationship is of 1:40000.

German physician Otto Werner (1879-1936) described the clinical picture of this syndrome in 1904, in four sisters, defining the skin thin, tight, scleroderma-like, that mimics premature aging, with bilateral cataracts associated.

Also known by the term "Progeria" - 'prematurely old' Greek derivation, due to the fact that usually presents wrinkling and aging of face. Progeria occurs in two forms: Progeria of childhood, described by Jonathan Hutchinson (1886) and Hastings Gilford (1897), diagnosed in the first or second year of life and Progeria adultorum commonly indicated as Werner Syndrome.

Jonathan Hutchinson (1828-1913) described “A case of congenital absence of hair with atrophic condition of the skin and its appendages”. Lancet, London, 1: 923, 1886.

At the same time wrote “Congenital absence of hair and mammary glands with atrophic condition of the skin and its appendages in a boy whose mother had been almost wholly bald from alopecia areata from the age of six”. Transactions of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, 69: 473-477, 1886.

Subsequently Hastings Gilford (1861-1941) wrote “On a condition of mixed premature and immature development”. Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, London, 80: 17-45, 1897 and coined the term Progeria from greek “Prematurely old”. In the year 1904 published “Progeria: a form of senilism”. Practitioner, London, 73: 188-217.