Many cases are accompanied by much _gastric irritation_, which it is difficult to explain. Ulcers are sometimes found in the intestines, as after burns. These usually give rise to bloody diarrhea. The cerebral symptoms may be simply those of delirium from irritation or of meningitis from infection. Strange phenomena have followed the disease in certain instances--cessation of neuralgic and of vague, unexplainable pain, improvement in deranged mental condition, spontaneous disappearance of tumors, etc. Advantage has been taken of this last in the treatment of these cases. (See Cancer.) It is quite likely that some of the worst forms of phlegmonous erysipelas are due to _mixed infection_. To inject the bacillus prodigiosus together with the streptococcus of erysipelas will greatly enhance the virulence of the latter, so that reaction may proceed even to gangrene. =Postmortem Appearances.=--These are not distinctive, but are a combination of local evidences of suppuration and gangrene, with the deterioration of the blood, the softening of the spleen, etc., which are characteristic of septic poisoning. Only in the skin, and then under microscopic examination, can any pathognomonic appearance be discovered. This will consist in the crowding of the lymphatic vessels and connective-tissue spaces with cocci, in the evidences of rapid cell proliferation, in the quantity of exudate, in vesication, sloughs, etc. =Diagnosis.=--Diagnosis of erysipelas should be made mainly from various forms of erythema, from certain drug eruptions, and from other forms of septic infection which do not assume the clinical type of erysipelas. The gastric symptoms of this disease are sometimes produced by certain poisonous foods or the distress which is produced by medicines, such as quinine, antipyrine, etc. =Prognosis.=--The majority of instances of idiopathic erysipelas run a certain limited course, although the eruption may spread to almost any distance upon the body. When the disease attacks surgical cases, and especially when it involves wound areas, the prognosis is not so good. When the disease assumes an _epidemic_ type and involves cases of all kinds, it will be found to have a _virulence_ that may make it a most serious affair. In proportion to the extent to which it assumes the phlegmonous type it will be found locally, if not generally, destructive. The ordinary case of facial erysipelas will recover with almost any treatment. Nevertheless meningitis may develop, and even a mild case is to be treated with care and caution.