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DISEASES OF THE GENERAL SYSTEM. 345
skin, and thirst. It is followed by profuse sweatings.
Too much food excites this feverish action.
A sponge-bath, or the dripping sheet, used at the ac
cess of the fever, and again after the sweating litis com
menced, does much to control it.
Night sweats soon disappear when the skin is invig
orated with daily bathing.
The fevers commonly called eruptive, differ but little
from other fevers.
Scarlatina.—This contagious disease commences with
symptoms like those of simple fever, but with deter
minations to the mucous membranes, and especially the
throat. These are relieved the second, third,
or fourth
day by an eruption on the skin, consisting of small, iso
lated pimples, first pale red, then scarlet ; they enlarge,
run together, and form large patches ; last seven to nine
days, and disappear with a peeling
off of the cuticle.
The danger in this disease is, of its whole force being
thrown upon the throat or the membranes of the brain.
In weakly children, in the scrofulous, and in those ex
posed to unhealthy conditions, a especially bad air and
flesh diet, it is very fatal. With healthy children, living
in healthy conditions, it is a trifling disease.
Its treatment is to promote the full action of the skin
by wet-sheet packing, and other treatment as in simple
fever.
Measles—contagious, and usually occurs but once. It
is characterized by an eruption of semi-lunar spots of
vermillion red, separated by angular, colorless intervals.
They begin at the roots of the hair, and travel gradu
ally down over the body. The eyes are apt to be
affected, and later, the lungs ; sometimes the bowels.