Haverhill Fever (Erythema Arthriticum Epidemicum)

In January, 1926, Place, Sutton and Willner1made careful clinical and epidemiologic studies of a group of cases occurring in Haverhill, Mass. The condition they observed in forty-five cases appeared to constitute a definite entity and was called by them "erythema arthriticum epidemicum." The outstanding clinical features of the cases described were (1) the symptoms of an infection, (2) a rash, and (3) a polyarthritis. Onset was sudden and came with or without chills, with fever and malaise and with or without vomiting, intense headache and prostration. Fever in the beginning often reached from 103 to 105 F. and came down usually on the third or fourth day. The period of eruption commenced on the first to the third day of illness, increased for from one to three days, and lasted then from three to seven days. This eruption consisted of dull red, circumscribed, maculopapular lesions from 2 to