Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1853-10-19
BY COVER & GOLDSMITH.


the influence of the exhalations of the
| sick indeed, as we have said of small
pox and its terrible contagious synonym,
in another place, they must both have
been thus concocted at their first ap-
pearance on earth there must be tUo eL-
ements IN them: and yet in truth we
know neither the primary essential ne
ture of scarlet fever nor its subsequent
additions; if we did, we might be able
to treat it with more certainty. Let us,
therefore, attend to its symptoms and see
what we can deduce from them in re-
gard to its treatment.
Simple scarlatina, when severe enough
to produce any symptoms sufficiently
marked TO attract notice, appears as a
faint diffused redness of the skin, some
times so slight as scarcely to exceed the
hue of healthy child's cheek: there
may be slight chills, and sometimes shi-
vering possibly little nausea ;-rare-
ly vomiting in these mild cases. The
eruption appears usually on the second
or third day. You may always remark,
that the later the eruption, the worse
the attack: of course all physicians of
experience and most mothers, know,
that if 10 eruption appear, or it come
very late, and only partially, the attack
of any cutaneous complaint will be more
serious the eruption, as we suppose,
is natures own method Of throwing the
poison or its influence out of the body.
The disease may be distinguished
from measles, which often prevails not
only in a noticeable degree at the same
seasons, but actually approximates in
appearance to the eruption in many ca
ses of mild scarlatina, firstly, by the
watery eyes, the sneezing and coug h of
measles /; and secondly, by the usual APP
earance of the eruption. The mea-
sizes are more Of a raspberry color
scarlatiha, of that of boiled LOBSTER
The eruption of measles is generally in
patches, more or less approximg ting tn e
shape of half crown, feeling ough un-
der the finger, with patches OF healthy
skin between them. The scarlatina e :
ruption is like diifused blush, smooth to
the touch, and merging into the gsner-
al lobster shell eruption all over the
skin. They both begin on the face, and
extend downwards. The eruption of
measles begins almost always on the
fourth day after the first appearance of
the watery eyes and hoarse cough, after
which it begins to fade. The eruption
OF scarlet fever, on the contrary, has nc
definite period of duration, sometimes
appearing as late as the fourth or fifth,
and disappearing by the eighth day !:
this is its most usual course, but ii is to
the frequent arrangement of this symp-
tom that we look, as 10 the dial plate of
the disease it will escape entirely, be
very slightly affected, or pass TO ma
llgnant state.
From the fourth day, in most cases,
the eruption becomes fainter, and the
external or scarf skin (for the reader
will remember the skin has three dis
tinct layers, begins to scale off or des-
quamate as we say it comes off the
body and face just like scales of bran,
only of finer texture, and by the
seventh day, the patient presents a
much better and smoother surface
Sometimes the thicker cuticle of the
hands and feet will come off entire, like
glove or sock. All the symptoms of
the mild variety of the disease most ca
silly distinguished by the general obser-
yer, will be found to show themselves
on the skin, and he is apt TO suppose
that the danger ends with its scaling off
or exfoliation. but be will soon see that
the real danger is just then about to
commence; in these mild cases, dropsy
and debility often destroy life where the
fever excited no apprehension.
First, however, of the second, or that
appalling variety that strikes such ter
ror to the parents heart. This origin
ates, as we have said, from the same poi
son we have ample evidence, from the
fact, that even when the first case in a
family proves to be a malignant and IA
tai one, attended with all the worst
throat symptoms, the child actually dy-
ing of sutlocation as early as the fourth
or fifth day, brother or sister, or sew
eral of them, may take the mi.dest form
and recover ; and the reverse of this is
just as often seen. This extraordinary
| difference in the result is closely con-
nected with the second impressive fact
we alluded to in our introduction. 1t
may be owing to some different organi-
cation of the skin inappreciably by lis.
or the absence or presence of some ell
ement or balance of the living power in
that individual child essential to the pro-
pagation of the severer form of the d.
sease, in its malignant form, or some
times its total failure to attack the body.
On such hypothesis it is idle to specu-
late; but other and graver reflections
arrest the attention when we witness
the routine treatment of these evidently
dissimlar constitions, and compare it
VITA the often terrible results.
Now, let us ask ourselves the ques-
ton, what is the fever that precedes the
redness of the skin? 1t is not increa-
sed action of the heart ? 1t it not more
than an hypothesis, is it not almost GER
tain, that this increased action is meant
by nature to throw the poison whatever
it be, out of the body, by means of this
very redness and scaling off Of the
skin? What are measles, small pox
~~la~,o + - -. 900 ,x,k,t IA