The etiology, morbid anatomy and bacteriology of scarlatina

Abstract

Scarlatina has been known to the medical profession for upwards of six- hundred years, and one is almost tempted to say that our present knowledge of the cause of the disease is as limited as it was in the time of Michael Scotus (1250 D), Ingrassia (1560 D), Gregor Horst (1624 D), and other physicians of the early periods of medical science. (2) According to Hirsch the disease must have been known as a separate one for many years before it was described by the medical profession, and this seems not improbable. In the earliest description Measles and Erysipelas were classed with the disease; and those diseases occurring in conjunction with it were looked upon as types. It is to Sydenham and Morton that we are indebted for its earliest description, and there can be little doubt that it is a disease which possesses characters entirely its own.