A DISTINCTIVE AND SEVERE FORM OF ERYSIPELOID AMONG FISH HANDLERS

Abstract

The skin disease which Rosenbach 1 in 1884 designated as erysipeloid (generally known as erysipeloid of Rosenbach) is now definitely established as an infection with an organism which he isolated and which is now recognized as a human strain of the bacillus of swine erysipelas 2 ( Erysipelothrix erysipeloids-Rosenbach 3 ). This disease is one form, a mild one, of erysipeloid. Rosenbach described the eruption as an erysipelas-like affection, frequently seen in cooks, kitchen workers, butchers and tanners, in those who handle game and fish, and in shopkeepers who handle cheese or herring, manifesting itself chiefly about the fingers and hands, and characterized by a slowly progressing, sharply defined, slightly elevated, dark violaceous, almost livid red zone which develops around the site of inoculation. The area of redness extends peripherally as the central portion fades away without desquamation. The eruption is accompanied by a sensation of burning, pricking or itching, without constitutional