CHAP TEE XIII. 



ERYSIPELOID. 



A NEW form of infective dermatitis, which in many respects 

 resembles erysipelas, has been recently described by Rosenbach 

 (" Ueber das Erysipeloid," Archiv f. klin. Chirurgie, B. xxxvi. 

 Heft 2) under the name of erysipeloid. It attacks usually the 

 fingers and exposed portion of the hand, and is most frequently 

 met with in persons who handle game or dead animals, as cooks, 

 butchers, fish-dealers, and tanners. The affection starts from some 

 minute abrasion of the skin, as a bluish-red infiltration which 

 slowly advances in a proximal direction. The inflamed parts are 

 the seat of a burning, smarting sensation. While the skin at the 

 point of infection returns to its natural condition and color, the 

 zone of infiltration becomes larger as it continues to spread until 

 the disease appears to exhaust itself in the course of from one to three 

 weeks. The infectious material is contained in decomposing animal 

 substances. The infection may take place in any abraded part of 

 the body which comes in contact with material containing the virus. 

 The general health is not affected and the temperature remains 

 normal. The disease travels very slowly, so that if infection takes 

 place in the tip of a finger, it reaches the metacarpus in about eight 

 days, and during the next eight days it spreads over the back of 

 the hand, from where an adjacent finger may become infected, the 

 extension then taking a direction opposite to the lymph current. 

 Repeated experiments to obtain a culture failed, until in November, 

 1886, the author succeeded in cultivating it upon gelatin from a case 

 in which the disease could be traced to infection from old cheese. 

 The author injected a pure culture under the skin of his own arm 

 at three different points. After forty-eight hours he experienced a 

 smarting, burning sensation at the points of injection, at the same 

 time a circumscribed redness appeared around each puncture, which 

 soon became confluent. On the fifth day each puncture was sur- 

 rounded by a zone of inflammation the size of a silver dollar, 

 somewhat elevated above the uiveau of the surrounding skin. 

 While the centre of this red patch became pale, the zone of inflam- 

 mation continued to enlarge. In the inflamed area the capillary 

 vessels could be seen enlarged, presenting in the zone an arterial hue 

 with a slight tinge of brown, while inside of the zone the color was 



