In spite of the manifold clinical manifestations of purpura, the older investigators considered all forms of this symptom-complex as manifestations of the same disorder. Later the investigations of Hayem,1 Bensaude and Rivet2 and Duke3 concerning the changes in the blood platelets, bleeding time and retraction of the blood clot resulted in the separation of the chronic purpura hemorrhagica, the morbus maculosus werlhofii, from the other forms of purpura. In the German literature, however, the unitarian views of all the purpuras held by Scheby-Buch4 and Litten5 were still the outstanding ones until the work of Frank6 of Breslau, who proved the special place occupied by Werlhoff's disease. Even now, however, the fact that purpura is only a symptom, and that it may be due to various etiologic factors, such as disturbances of the blood-forming organs, diseases of the walls of the blood vessels, endocrine, and