Rhinoscleroma; observations based on a study of two hundred cases.

RHINOSCLEROMA (scrofulous lupus of the nostrils, nasal scleroma) is a chronic disease of relatively benign evolution, whose contagiousness is doubtful; it is nonhereditary. Its anatomic characteristic is a tumor formation of varying volume, of waxy or reddish appearance and with a decided tendency to ulcerate and spread. It is invariably located in the rhinopharyngeal region. HISTORY In the Museum of the History of Medicine, of Cracow, Poland,1there are wax models of this disease made in the year 1840, which were exhibited by Bierkowsky as cutaneous cancers. Hebra2(1870) was the first to make a clinical description of this curious disease, naming it rhinoscleroma (hard nose). At that time it was mistaken for syphilis and sarcoma. Geber3in 1872 and Mikulicz4in 1876 histologically demonstrated its sclerotic tissue. In 1882 Frisch5discovered an encapsulated bacillus which now bears his name and which he