An inquiry into the etiology of Rötheln (German measles) / by Donald W.C. Hood.

  • Hood, Donald W. C.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the etiology of Rötheln (German measles) / by Donald W.C. Hood. 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.

    19/64 (page 15)
    The patient I was asked to see was found to have the glands swollen and tender, those on the mastoid process being acutely painful. The rash had faded and there was no constitutional disturbance. Sleeping in the same room was another sister, and I found that her glandular concate- natae were also swollen but not painful. Five days later she developed a bright papular rash, but beyond having a tongue thickly coated there was no symptom denoting constitutional trouble. On June 2, 1892, a lady consulted me for swollen, painful glands on mastoid process. At the time I made a note that I had never seen such glandular swelling excepting in connection with rotheln, but I had not the slightest sus- picion that in this case the true cause was rotheln. Seven days later I had a letter from my friend Dr. Schacht, stating that he had been called to see the patient and found her covered with rash. She passed through a very mild attack of rotheln, the catarrhal symptoms being limited to slight coryza, suffused eyes and nasal catarrh. I will now ask your attention to the case of two children who were exposed to the contagium of measles at the period of decline of a village epidemic, the attack being slight and wanting in character. Some years later, being again exposed to a contagium of extreme intensity, they both passed through measles, typical in every particular. In the year 1875, I was living in a country village. In the immediate neighbourhood was a very general epidemic of measles. Scarcely a house escaped infection, which was of mild but regular type. Among those who suffered was a lady who had never had the disease. She passed through a sharp attack. Fourteen days later her two children fell ill with coryza, raised temperature, and an ill-defined measly rash, the papules being small, discrete, with no tendency to run together into crescentic blotches. In truth the eruptive period was so indefinite, that had not the specific contagium