Statistical Study of Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria. With special reference to (1) Changes in the Age Distribution of Mortality; (2) Effect of Isolation on the Prevalence and Mortality from Scarlet Fever

Abstract

In the early records of mortality there was much confusion between scarlet fever and diphtheria. According to Hirsch, after scarlet fever had been clearly differentiated from measles about the middle of the eighteenth century a new error was introduced into the doctrine of scarlet fever. Emphasis was placed on the inflammatory process in the throat which frequently occurs in scarlet fever, and this led to its being confused with diphtheria.