“…Although Waldenstrbm recognized that attacks of abdominal pain were occasionally a feature of 'porphyria cutanea tarda', subjects with cutaneous symptoms were never found amongst families with typical acute intermittent porphyria. Subsequent reports established that 'porphyria cutanea tarda' was predominantly a disease of men over the age of 40, who frequently gave a history of alcoholism and showed evidence of liver dysfunction and that both attacks of acute porphyria and a family history of porphyria were uncommon in this group (Szodoray and Sumegi, 1944;Brunsting, Mason, and Aldrich, 1951;Brunsting, 1954). However, there were also accounts of a less common cutaneous porphyria in which both photosensitivity and acute attacks occurred (Gray, Rimington, and Thomson, 1948;Watson, 1951 ;MacGregor, Nicholas, and Rimington, 1952;Rimington, 1952;Calvert and Rimington, 1953;Discombe and Treip, 1953;Wells and Rimington, 1953;Holti, Rimington, Tate, and Thomas, 1958).…”