[Erysipelas outbreaks in Chile]

Historical antecedents of erysipelas outbreaks in Chile, registered by national bibliography at years 1822 and 1873 are reviewed. The first one, after an earthquake, with numerous severe ataxo-adynamic manifestations and the second, more attenuated with few severe cases. Remembers of treatments utilized at XIX Century for the disease and the beginning of sulphamides prescription at the thirty decade are presented. Afterwards penicillin and other antimicrobial agents treatments were implemented. Finally, we comment the severe presentation of soft tissues streptococcal diseases that appeared in the end of XX Century.

Elephantiasis, elastin, and chronic wound healing: 19th century and contemporary viewpoints relevant to hypotheses concerning lymphedema, leprosy, erysipelas, and psoriasis--review and reflections

Both wound healing and lymphedema have fibrosis of the skin in common. They also share destruction of elastin by elastases from neutrophils as a significant feature. These are not new observations, and the writings of Unna and Kaposi are recalled. The contemporary observations on elastin by Gerli and his team are discussed in the light of these much earlier opinions.

History of diagnostics in dermatovenerology on Medical Faculty in Prague

The article deals with the history of diagnostics in dermatovenerology on Medical Faculty in Prague from 1875 to 1910. Medical Reports of General Hospital in Prague from those years were used as the source of data. Three dermatologic and venereal diagnoses from years 1875, 1881, 1885, 1890, 1895, 1899, 1906 and 1910 were used for a statistic comparison. The article also contains short description of institutional background of dermatovenerology in Prague during this period.

Restructuring isolation: hospital architecture, medicine, and disease prevention

This paper examines changing strategies of isolation in the New York Hospital between 1771 and 1930 by correlating the facilities available for isolation with changing reactions to internal disease incidence, changing medical rules and regulations, and shifting ward categories. To prevent internal "epidemics" of telltale diseases such as erysipelas, pyemia, and "hospital gangrene," what (or who) was isolated from what, and how that isolation was achieved, altered drastically. Traditional strategies of increasing the air space and flow around each patient gave way to Florence Nightingale's sanitary nursing, Joseph Lister's antisepsis, Joseph Grancher's barrier system of nursing, D. L. Richardson's aseptic nursing, and Charles Chapin's advocacy of individual cubicles. The larger social and medical transformations of the hospital colored all of these shifts. But the changing isolation strategies also reveal a transformation of the underlying understanding of the role that hospital architecture played in disease incidence.

[Goethe's eye disease]

Ophthalmic diseases reported in the age of Goethe are difficult to identify today because the nomenclature used at that time is now antiquated. However, it is not difficult to establish from available documents that Goethe's left eye was seriously affected by an erysipelas (tenonitis? orbital phlegmon?), though it was not permanently damaged. With regard to differential diagnosis, an ophthalmic zoster may also be considered, but this is most unlikely considering the documentary evidence and the absence of lasting ocular damage.