The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 452 of 653is often even less severe than that of varioloid. It lasts threeWithout an exception, the exanthem first breaks out in the fape,thence spreading over the whole body, from above downwards,within two, at most three days. The face always shows the largestnumber of efflorescences. Inasmuch as variola penetrates the cutaneous tissue more deeply, the course of each single varioladiffers somewhat from that pursued by a varioloid pustule. Withintwenty-four hours the stigma changes to a papule, and in anothertwenty-four hoars the papule to a vesicle, the contents of whichassume a puriform consistence until the sixth day after the appeaance of the stigma. The pustule thus formed is surrounded by abroad halo. Hence in variola the eruptive stage and the stage ofefflorescence last at most ten, but never less than nine days.The general health in these two stages is about the same asduring a similar period in varioloid. The fever abates to a certadegree ; the affection of the mucous lining is generally a littleintense.On the ninth or tenth day commences the suppurative stage socharacteristic of variola. The fever, which had almost entirelv dappeared, breaks out again with frequent chills and an intense heHebra accounts for this fever by the circumstance that pus hasbeen absorbed, not by the intensity of the cutaneous affection, fit is not unfrequently absent, even during a most violent attackvariola and never sets in until the pustules had become filled fosome time, but, on the other hand, is always present if ulceratio536 Acute and Chronic Contagious Diseases.takes place. The j-yjemic nature of this fever accounts most easifor the dangerous character of this stage upon which we shall dwemore fully by and by when we come to treat of the complications.While the fever is gradually abating, the suppurative stage continues until the fourteenth day, when the desiccation and the scabing process commence in the same order as the eruption had developed itself. The patients, during this time, are without fever, afeel quite well. The scabs very seldom separate before the seventsometimes not till the fourteenth day, leaving reddish-brown, pigmentous spots and scars which disappear very slowly.It now remains for us to indicate several important anomalies inthe course of the disease. In doing this, we shall confine ourselto variola, varioloid having the same modifications except in alesser degree.In the first place the pustules, instead of remaining isolated, mrun together (confluent small-pox). This confluence of the pocksmay take place to some extent in every severe case of smallbut if it is extensive, the disease becomes much fiercer, the fevabates very little during the stage of efflorescence, th^ suppurafever is very intense, because confluent pustules cause deeplytrating ulcerations. As a rule, this' process only takes place inface. In the suppurative stage the pustules not unfrequently become mixed with blood, giving rise to the so-called black pockwhich always constitutes the most dangerous form of the disease,because it sets in w^ith an exquisitely adynamic fever attended whttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt