ABSTRACT
Cesar Boeck of Christiania, Denmark, was the first to use the
word sarcoid and described the multisystem nature of the
disease in 1899 (Black 1973). He mentioned the clinical
similarity to a previous case described by Jonathan Hutch-
inson of London in 1898 as Mortimer’s Malady where a
female patient, Mrs Mortimer, had generalized skin lesions
and swelling of the bridge of the nose. In 1905 Boek recorded
infiltration of the nasal mucosa in a case of multiple benign
sarcoid (Boeck 1905). Kreibich and Kraus described a patient
in 1908 with sarcoid of the skin of the nose and forehead who
also had nasal symptoms (Kreibich and Kraus 1908). The
involvement of the tonsils was documented by Shaumann in
1914 who reported that, in two out of three cases of lupus
pernio, the tonsils showed specific histological features
(Shaumann 1936). In 1918 Ulrich reported the involvement
of the larynx (Ulrich 1918). Subsequently many reports of
upper respiratory tract involvement were published but it was
not until recently that epidemiological studies attempted to
define the incidence of various organ involvement.
