Hereditary Hæmorrhagic Telangiectasia, with Report of Three Families and a Review of those previously recorded

In 1865 Babbington1 reported an interesting family in which recurring epistaxis had been observed for five generations. The transmission was through both male and female, but no mention was made of telangiectases in any of them. The first family in which these telangiectases were found was reported eleven years later by Legg,2 who described numerous small nevi on the face, forehead and trunk of his patient. They developed about his 41st year. These cases were followed by others reported by Chiari,3 Rendu,4 Osler,5 Josserand,6 Kelly,7 Hawthorne,8 Parkes-Weber,9 Phillips,10 Waggett11 and Ballantyne.12 Rendu, however, was the first of these observers to associate the presence of epistaxis with multiple telangiectases as clinical manifestations of a distinct morbid entity. Henceforth the erroneous diagnoses of hemophilia, acquired angiomas from cirrhosis of the liver and hemorrhagic diathesis were no