CHAPTER XL VII 



MEASLES, SCARLET FEVER, MUMPS, DENGUE FEVER, FOOT AND 



MOUTH DISEASE 



MEASLES 



THE causative agent of measles is unknown to the present day, 

 and it would be a thankless task to review the literature of the many 

 attempts to isolate microorganisms from this disease, none of which 

 has resulted in throwing any light on the etiology. 



Attempts to produce the disease experimentally have frequently 

 been made, the earliest recorded being those of Home of Edinburgh, 

 published in 1759. 1 Home took blood from the arms of patients afflicted 

 with measles, caught it upon cotton, and inoculated normal indi- 

 viduals by placing this blood-stained cotton on wounds made in the 

 arm. Home claimed that in this way he produces measles of a modified 

 and milder type in fifteen individuals. Home's results, however, while 

 at first accepted, were assailed by many writers and it is by no means 

 certain that the disease produced by him was really measles. 



A number of other observers after Home attempted experimental 

 inoculation of this disease, and positive results were reported by 

 Stewart of Rhode Island (1799), Speranza of Mantua (1822), Katowa 

 of Hungary (1842), and McGirr of Chicago (1850). 



The experiments of all these early writers, however, are unsatis- 

 factory, owing to the necessarily unreliable technique of their methods. 



In 1905 Hektoen 2 succeeded in experimentally producing the dis- 

 ease in two medical students by subcutaneous injection of blood taken 

 from measles patients at the height of the disease (fourth day). The 

 experiments were carefully carried out and the symptoms in the sub- 

 jects were unquestionable. They demonstrated that the virus of 

 the disease is present in the blood. Attempts at cultivation 

 carried out with the same blood were entirely negative. It was also 



1 Home, "Medical Facts and Experiments," Edinburgh, 1759. 



2 Hektoen, Jour. Inf. Dis., ii, 1905. 



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