Mumps is a contagious viral disease that causes painful enlargement of the salivary glands, most commonly the parotids. Mumps is sometimes known as epidemic parotitis and occurs most often in children between the ages of 4 and 14.

Mumps was first described by Hippocrates (c.460-c.370 B.C.), who observed that the diseases occurred most commonly in young men, a fact that he attributed to their congregating at sports grounds. Women, who were inclined to be isolated in their own homes, were seldom taken ill with the disease. Over the centuries, medical writers paid little attention to mumps. Occasionally, mention was made of a local epidemic of the disease, as recorded in Paris, France, in the sixteenth century by Guillaume de Baillou (1538-1616). Most physicians believed that the disease was contagious, but no studies were made to confirm this suspicion. The first detailed scientific description of mumps was provided by...