Historians of medicine and philologists have over the years attributed the Cough of Perinthus to diphtheria, influenza, epidemic encephalitis, dengue fever, acute poliomyelitis, and many other diseases. However, a French physician named Chamseru, who practiced in the 18th century, almost a century before Littré, finally got to the bottom of what may be meant by the Cough of Perinthus, probably because the term epidemic had not yet taken on the meaning it had in Littré's time. According to Chamseru, the Cough of Perinthus could have encompassed several diseases, among them diphtheria, influenza, and whooping cough (5) .