[Thoughts about the "rade" disease in Norway--"it takes its victims slowly"]

Radesyge first appeared in south-western Norway in the middle of the 18th century; the endemic that followed was to haunt the region for close to one hundred years. The disease was characterized by severe wounds, often with bone decomposition. The face was frequently involved, causing striking malformations. Radesyge was at the time considered a serious threat to society and was the subject of intense public debate over several decades. Core components of the modern health care system in Norway can trace their origin to countermeasures taken to combat the spread of this disease. In this article, the author argues that rather than viewing radesyge as an outbreak of tertiary syphilis, which has been the custom for the last hundred years, it should, for scholarly purposes, be seen as a separate event. This is the only way to properly grasp the impact of the endemic on patients, society, politics and science at the time.