Pink Disease *

physical signs of disease in lung still present, though less marked than on admission. General health improved, but not restored. In the 1930-1 report, Sir St. Clair Thompson states :-"Out of thirteen cases with laryngeal tuberculosis, approximately thirty per cent. were "arrested," while sixty-six per cent. of the remainder were "improved." These figures suggest that with more modern methods of diagnosis and treatment there is a very much better prognosis. CASES of pink disease have been observed at infrequent intervals in Northern Ireland until the last six months; since then the condition appears to have become much more common. As the disease is somewhat unique in its manifestations, and therefore liable to be puzzling to the uninitiated, this short account with three illustrative cases is given. Few, except the most modern textbooks on padiatrics, contain an account of the condition. Other names given to the disease include erythroedema-polyneuritis, and acrodynia. It has been studied in the Antipodes, having been first described by Swift in Australia in 1914, and subsequently in England and America. Accounts originating from England would suggest that the disease was endemic in various areas, and, in view of the number of cases under observation at present, it is possible that a mild epidemic is developing in Northern Ireland. The cause is unknown. It has been suggested that the condition is a deficiency disease, but this is not borne out on account of the negative response to dietary regulation. That a virus is responsible would appear more probable, as the disease is mildly contagious, there being some support for the belief that the condition is relate(d to "toxic polyneuritis." The disease affects infants and young children, more commonly those who are well cared for in the middle and upper classes. It is characterized bv cedema and ervthema of the extremities, and mothers notice particularly refusal of food and persistent crying, this latter being of especial significance in infants. The disease is essentially chronic, and the characteristic erythema and cedema of the hands and feet may not be present for some weeks. A mild infection occurs in the early stages of the disease, sometimes with vomiting and diarrhoea, an illness commonly passed off as a "cold" or "influenza." About this time the infant begins to refuse food, and is wakeful at night with persistent crying, and lapses into an attitude of general and complete miserableness which does not respond …