Mumps Parotitis

Mumps (Parotitis), acontagious febrile malady, associated with inflammation affecting the salivary glands. Mumps is highly infectious, and is remarkable for the length of its period of incubation, which is rarely less than a'fortnight, and may extend to three weeks. The onset of the disease is attended with headache and fever, accompanied by tenderness behind the angle, of the lower jaw, in which situation swelling subsequently appears, caused by inflammation of the parotid gland. The parotids of both sides are usually involved; the submaxillary glands are generally also implicated. The swelling rarely lasts for more than a week and the disease almost always terminates in recovery. In rare instances, after an attack of mumps, inflammation affecting the testicle in the male and the breast in the female has supervened as a complication.