A Peculiar Eruptive Disease Occurring in Infancy

Zahorsky 1 in 1910, and again in 1913, described a symptom complex under the designation of "roseola infantum," which he believed deserved a nosologic position of its own.His description of the condition is as follows:"The patient is almost always a child under 3 years of age who suddenly becomes ill with high fever.The physician is called, and on examination finds nothing to account for the fever.The fever continues but no diagnosis can be made on the second, third or even fourth day.Then the temperature drops to normal, or nearly so, and the child, who has been drowsy and irritable, sits up and commences to play.Coincidentally with the decline in the temperature a morbilliform rash appears on the face and neck and rapidly spreads over the body.The eruption disappears in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours.There are no complications or sequels.No desquamation follows the disappearance of the rash."This syndrome had been recognized previously 2 but apparently had been classified with the toxic erythemas or, perhaps, as an atypical rubella.Recently Levy,3 Veeder and Hempelmann,4 Greenthal5 and West- cott,6 published their observations of, and incited interest in the condi¬ tion.The clinical descriptions of these authors agree almost completely, though in some minor details their observations vary.Since February, 1920, one of us (J.H. P.) has observed twenty- one cases of this disorder.To illustrate the condition more fully a typical case will be described.