Lemierre's Postanginal Sepsis-Reply

In Reply.—Dr Powell is right that others recognized the syndrome of postanginal sepsis prior to the publication of the article by Lemierre¹ we cited. Although Lemierre credits Schottmuller with its original description in 1918, we were not able to find this reference. A number of case reports appeared in the American^2,3 and German^4,5 literature prior to 1930. The paper by Fraenkel,⁴ a pathological study, appears to be the first to have associated postanginal sepsis with tonsillar and peritonsillar thrombophlebitis, although the association with jugular thrombophlebitis was recognized in earlier reports. The case series by Reuben, cited by Dr Powell, and another by Abt⁶ clearly describe the syndrome but remain relatively unsophisticated from the bacteriological standpoint. Teisser et al⁷ in 1931 reported a case of postanginal sepsis in which the blood culture isolate was speciated as Bacillus funduliformis (now known as Fusobacterium necrophorum). It