The bacteriology of diphtheria, including sections on the history, epidemiology and pathology of the disease, the mortality caused by it, the toxins and antitoxins and the serum disease / by F. Loeffler et al. Edited by G.H.F. Nuttall and G.S. Graham-Smith.

  • Loeffler, Friedrich August Johannes, 1852-
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The bacteriology of diphtheria, including sections on the history, epidemiology and pathology of the disease, the mortality caused by it, the toxins and antitoxins and the serum disease / by F. Loeffler et al. Edited by G.H.F. Nuttall and G.S. Graham-Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    of Celsus, Soranus, Galen and Caelius Aurelianus no mention is made of this disease. On the other hand the disease appears to have been perfectly well known in Egypt, Syria and Palestine, even in ancient times. This is proved by the repeated references to it in the Babylonian Talmud (Wiinsche 1886, Strack 1894)^ a work, which, though it only appeared in the fifth century, transmitted the old Jewish traditions. In the Berachoth Treatise the following passage occurs: There were created 903 kinds of death in the world...the hardest of all angina (according to Strack Askara), the easiest of all Kuss. Angina is like a brier in a bundle of wool which one casts behind one (for it is as difficult for the soul to leave the body as it is to remove a brier from a bundle of sheep's wool). According to some it is like unto a ship's cable in the opening of the throat (for a ship's cable can only be drawn with difficulty through a small hole). The Kuss is like unto a hair which one draws out of milk. Askara we should now translate as diphtheria. According to Strack the word can be connected with the verb sdkhdr, to stop up, and would therefore designate a disease which chokes. This view is supported by other passages in the Schabbath^ and Thaanith^ Treatises. 1 See Bibliography. 2 Die Eabbinen haben iiberliefert: Die Braune kommt in die Welt nur wegen des Zehnten. Nach E. Eliaser bar R. Josse kommt sie wegen der Verleumdung. Raba oder, wie manche sagen, E. Joshua Ben Levy hat gesagt: ' Aus welcher Schriftstelle lasst sich das beweissen ? ' Aus Psalm 63. 12 : 'Und der Konig freut sich in Gott, es riihmt sich, wer ihm Treue schwort, denn er vertilgt den Mund der Verleumder,' oder nach Strack: ' denn verstopft werden soli der Mund der Liigenredner.' That the disease was one which specially menaced children is clear from the following passage (fol. 33a—34a): Hierauf nahm E. Simeon das Wort und sprach: 'Sie kommt wegen der Siinde der Vernachlassigung der Thora.' Da hielten sie ihm ein: Trauen, welche ihre Manner, Fremde, welche Israel, und Kinder, welche ihre Vater vom Thorastudium abhalten, beweisen doch das Gegenteil ? Ferner beweisen doch audi Schulkinder das Gegenteil ? Nein, es ist so, wie E. Gurjon erklart hat; denn dieser oder, wie andere meinen, Eab Joseph bar Schemaja hat gesagt: ' Zu der Zeit, wo Gerechte im Zeitalter sind, da werden diese fiir das Zeitalter in Anspruch genommen (sie leiden fiir das Geschlecht) j sind keine Gerechten im Zeitalter da, so werden die Schulkinder fiir das Zeitalter in Anspruch genommen.' ' In the Thaanith Treatise (fol. 276) the following passage occurs : ...und die Standmanner (eine Vertretung des Volkes beim Kultus in Jerusalem) kamen in das Versammlungshaus und fasteten vier Tage, am 2., 3., 4., und 5. Wochen- tage, am 2. wegen der Seefahrer, am 3. wegen der Wuestereisenden, am 4. wegen der Braune (Askara), das sie nicht die Kinder befalle.