DISEASES OF THE OX AND SHEEP. 331 



Ph. Ingrassias published a description of a malady which had 

 been previously recognized by the common people, and named 

 by them Rossalia. It is possible that examples of a severer type 

 of the same disease formed part of the notable epidemic of" 

 malignant angina which raged sixty years later in the South of 

 Europe. In Germany, about this time, Sennertus noticed what 

 he supposed was the rossalia of the Italians, and what no doubt 

 was our scarlet fever. In 1676 appeared Sydenham's Febris 

 Scarlatina^ and by the end of the same century the disease had 

 been described in all parts of civilized Europe (Noirot). Scarlet 

 fever is the same disease as that called "morbilli confluentes " 

 (Morton), and as the " febris rubra " of Heberden. 



At the present day the fever is generally met with among 

 human beings throughout the world, but it has at least in 

 England its peculiar seasons of prevalence. The ravages of 

 this malady are promoted by poverty, by overcrowding, and by 

 other mal-hygienic conditions, and so infectious and widespread 

 is the virus of the disease among mankind tliat very many 

 children are affected with it during the first few years of life, 

 and are thereby in a great measure protected against future 

 attacks. Hence arises the fact that scarlet fever seems to occur 

 more frequently in children than in adults. The disease, how- 

 ever, although it rarely occurs a second time, in like manner 

 with small-pox, may recur as many as three times or possibly 

 even more frequently ; but, as is to be expected, the disease 

 under such circumstances has by no means the same power for 

 mischief as it has in the case of a first attack. It frequently 

 happens, too, that persons attending on patients affecied with 

 scarlatina suffer from sore throat, and there is evidence to show 

 that this sore throat may in reality be a sign of a very mild or 

 abortive attack. 



It is most probable that scarlet fever has its origin in the 

 presence and multiplication of a definite germ ; for very minute 

 micrococci have been found in the blood of scarlet fever patients, 

 also in the ulcerations and discharges of the throat, and in the 

 scales of skin which peel off in the later stage of the disease, 

 when the process called desquamation is going on. These scales, 

 then, may in all probability be looked upon as fertile sources 

 of communication. The micrococci are found in small groups, 

 and they have a diameter of about '0005 mm. To this point 



