Scarlet Fever
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Scarlet Fever. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or SCARLATINA, a contagious febrile disease, almost always attended during a part of its course by a rash and by sore throat. Sometimes only one of these features is well marked, sometimes both. Though persons of all ages are susceptible to it, it is eminently a disease of children. It is infectious and contagion may be carried by clothing, school-books, etc. Like smallpox or measles it rarely attacks a person more It usually comes on with than once. shiverings and a feeling of lassitude, followed by more or less of fever, restlessness, loss of appetite, headache, nausea, and occasionally by vomiting. The The eruption appears on the second or third day in the form of closely aggregated points about the size of a pin's head. The period of desquamation, owing to excessive production of new epidermis, follows in two or three days. The eruption is most The throat is marked on the face. seriously involved, the tonsils becoming swollen with catarrhal pharyngitis, tenacious mucous secretion, on, and edema, with great difficulty in swallowing. Inflammation of the parotids and other glands often occurs, with suppuration and abscess, destroying the cell tissues, with sloughing, and occasionally fatal hemorrhage. Physicians have generally distinguished three different varieties of scarlet fever; viz., S. simplex, in which there is a florid rash and little or no affection of the throat; S. anginosa, in which both the skin and the throat are decidedly implicated; and S. maligna, in which the stress of the disease falls on the throat. S. simplex is a very mild form of the disease, and deviates only slightly from a state of health. Scarlatina is also dangerous from its tendency to give rise to other complaints, as boils or strumous ulcers, various forms of scrofula, etc. The kidneys are more affected in this disease than any other organ, nephritis being a common accompaniment, and dropsy a very frequent sequel. It is very contagious, the infection persisting for a long time, and tending to attack every member of a family not protected by a previous attack. Its regular course is from two to three weeks, the period of infection being strongest during the process of desquamation, and lasting for about three weeks from the commence ment of that process. It is most fatal in the very young, during pregnancy, or in adults suffering from organic diseases, or when complications exist. There is no known specific for this formidable malady.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an acute contagious disease. It is somewhat akin to measles, and, like measles, is peculiar to children, because a first attack protects from a second. The cause is not positively known, but it is due doubtless to a specific organism, that is to say, a minute plant or animal multiplying in the system. It is considered much more dangerous than measles. Especial care should be taken lest the patient take a cold. The hearing of many patients who recover otherwise is permanently injured. During the year 1900, 3,027 deaths were reported in certain areas of the United States from scarlet fever, a slight increase over previous reports. See Disease