SCARLET FEVER. Synonyms.—Scarlatina; Scarlet Rash. Definition ...

survive for some minutes at a temperature of 212°, the boiling point.
While the bacilli are destroyed in ten seconds in a one-per-cent solution
of carbolic acid, the spores will live for thirty-seven days in a five-percent
solution of the same, and while desiccation destroys the bacilli in a
few days, the spores remain active for years.
They infect cattle and sheep principally, and man occasionally, and are
introduced into the system through a wound, or by the bite and sting of
insects, through digestion, and also by inhalation.
Occupation is a predisposing cause, and workers who come in direct
contact with infected animals or their products are most liable to the
disease; as butchers, tanners, herders, hostlers, and those who handle
hair and hides. It prevails in Europe, Asia, and South America, but only
to a slight extent in this country.
Pathology.—The usual lesions that are found in severe infectious
diseases—viz., degeneration of the liver, spleen, and kidneys—are found
in anthrax. In addition to the local lesions, ulceration, and edematous
infiltration, the most marked and most constant lesion is splenic
enlargement, it sometimes being three or four times its natural size. The
blood is dark, thick, diffluent, arid rich in spores.
Symptoms.—Two principal forms occur, external and internal.
External.—Malignant Pustule.—After an incubating period of from one
to four days, the patient experiences a smarting, pricking, burning, or
stinging sensation at the seat of inoculation, usually the hands, face, or
neck, and soon a papule appears, which rapidly changes to a vesicle, the
contents of which are bloody. On rupturing, a brown or black scab
forms—anthrax.
Encircling the primary pustule, are seen a number of smaller pustules
giving it the appearance of a carbuncle. The base of the primary ulcer
becomes infiltrated and swollen, often involving quite an extensive area.
The neighboring lymphatics soon become involved, and lymphangitis is
quite common.
For the first twenty-four or forty-eight hours, the disease is of a local
character, but soon systemic symptoms appear, the temperature rising
rapidly; there is nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, profuse sweating, and
finally collapse, which may terminate fatally in from five to ten days. In
The Eclectic Practice of Medicine - PART I - Infectious Diseases - Page 243