Abstract
During the past 70 years the attention of surgeons
and physicians has been frequently called to the fact that
recent wounds, both surgical and traumatic, are liable to be
followed by an eruption which closely resembles the exanthem
of scarlet fever. This association led to the belief that
in some way the eruptions were caused by the trauma, but as
to the nature of the eruptions, there has been much difference
of opinion. In the seventies and eighties of last century
when the subject enjoyed a season of popularity, the preponderance of opinion was in favour of a scarlatinal origin
and the condition came to be recognised as "surgical scarlatina,"
a term which has persisted in the literature. It must be
admitted that there is no universal agreement as to the
scarlatinal origin. Certain anomalies and variations in the
eruption and in the constitutional symptoms have raised doubts
in the minds of certain observers and the whole question still
rests on very debatable ground.
The position is distinctly unsatisfactory and the
urgent need is to determine the intrinsic nature of those
enanthemata. This can be done by the application of modern
methods of investigations. Bacteriological and serological
weapons have been employed to such a limited extent that it
is impossible to reach any conclusions. The main object of
the study embodied in this thesis, is to supplement and amplify
the investigations already made and to bring the socalled
"surgical scarlatina" into line with acknowledged scientific
facts and thereby demonstrate its intrinsic nature.
