The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 435 of 653MorbilU. 515increase of fever, the patients feel unable to sit np, the tonguethickly coated, the appetite gone, and in the night from the thirto the fourth day, immediately previous to the appearance of theexanthem, a hoarse, barking cough sets in resembling croup, whichhowever, is scarcely ever attended with the danger that generallycharacterizes croup, and never changes to true croup. These symptoms may increase to a considerable degree of intensity, may beassociated with vomiting, delirium, sopor ; at times, however, thare entirely wanting or so slight' that it is not deemed necessarconfine children to the room. This is the reason why the measlesspread so rapidly through the schools, for it is precisely on theprevious to the breaking out of the measles that the infectiousprinciple is most active, and that hence the measles are most eascommunicated. We account for this circumstance by the fact thatin the last twenty-four to twelve hours previous to the appearancof the exanthem upon the skin, distinct, lentil-sized measleare perceived in almost every case on the palate and on the sidesof the fauces. We have noticed them in all our cases of the preseas well as of last-year's epidemic. Without doubt, it is the extesion of these spots to the larynx and trachea that causes the peccroupy cough, and we have always considered it an excellent diagnostic sign to find this cough associated with red spots on thepalate, in which case we were able to positively predict the appeance of the eruption within twenty-four hours. In other respectsthe prodromi have no distinctive peculiarity from which the character of the exanthem might be inferred; it can at most only besuspected after several cases had already occurred in the place,in its immediate vicinity. As a rule, adults suflfer much less frprodromi than children, nor has, in the case of adults, the coughvery often the croupy sound.The measle-exanthem breaks out gradually, in one case morerapidly than in another. The first spots always show themselvesin the face, most commonly on the cheeks and temples. They areof the size of lentils, of a bright redness and with rather sharpoutlines ; after being out for a short time, they become somewhatraised above the skin and harder to the feel than this organ. Witmore or less speed, generally within twenty-four to thirtythe exanthem comes out over the whole body from above downwards, and is fully out in forty-eight to sixty hours, so that nospots appear, whereas, up to that time, new spots had continued tbreak 6ut in addition to the first spots that were more or less516 Acute and Chronic Contagious Diseases.scattered and isolated. The spots keep growing in size to such anextent that some of them run together, and the normal skin, inthe place of spots, exhibits here and there irregular red patchesIn proportion as the exanthem comes out more profusely, its colorgenerally grows darker, sometimes with a bluish tint. With thefuller development of the eruption the constitutional symptomsmost commonly increase in intensity. The catarrh of the conjunctiva and the cough especially grow much worse. The pulse somehttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt