Diphtheria

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Abstract
Diphtheria was first clinically recognized in England in the late 1850s. Until 1894 the identity and nature of diphtheria was a source of confusion and argument within the English medical profession. While the existence of three types of diphtheria, its contagiousness, and eccentric means of progress were quickly recognized by Victorian observers, there was widespread controversy over the identity of the disease and its relationship with other types of ‘sore throat’. Early investigations by the Medical Department and the Epidemiological Society failed to provide any satisfactory answers to the questions of causation and definition. As a result, there was no standardization of diagnosis or nomenclature. In his Lancet Sanitary Commission of 1858, Ernest Hart condemned the ‘loose wording’ that constantly impeded the preventive search for the local prevalence of the disease.

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