Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1857-02-07
A MODERN sCOURGE-THE SCARLET
FEVER,

The prevalence of scarlet fever in our city
and elsewhere, and the ravages it has com.
United among children, have caused the in
qury TO be made. whether there is any mode
of diet or regimen. or the administration Of
any medicment which will prevent the at.
tack of the diStemper. This pestience.
which walks in the purest air, and which
defes the power Of frost to blind it or even
weaken its force, has been uncommonly fatal
during the present month and the month
previous. In Worcester, during the month
of November, twenty one children died with
it, out Of population Of seventeen thousand.
Last week thirty.two died ia this city oi
scarlet fever; the week previously forty.
The use Of belladonna as II prophylactic
in this disease has been recommended 1t
was FIRST employed in this way, We believe. by
the homnopathists, which may have creates.
u prejudice against it in the minds of those
who have espoused other methods of practice,
but it seems that its use is now by no means
confined to physicians OF the homeopathic
school In a Massachusetts print, the LEw-
renee Courier. II writer Of the medical pro-
ression expresses his confidence in its efficacy
rs a preventive, having been Induced, he
says, TO apply it by some remarks of DR.. j.
5. Bartlett, of the Royal College Of Lon.
don, made twenty-five years since lie
says:
believing his observations entitled to
attention ! then induced several families to
use the Belludonna solution as directed
and have continued TO use it in my practice
during every epidemic that has occurred
since, aud have never seen but one child
attacked with the disease who had taken the
medicine one week, and that case was the
. 4 -, Ia Ln1l
donna liz proper doses will modify ar attack
Of scarlet fever have no doubt, but that it
is strictly prophyiactic has not as yet been
substsntiated. As the medicine in proper
dose is perfectly safe, it is well for every one
to give it trial, but as its prereniice power
only lasts while the system is under its iufu-
ence, aud as epdemics usually occupy weeks
and months OF time g must expect failures
in the hoped for .s from its use"
The Boston ~. .ical and Surgical journal
has n paper Oh e subject, which we have
now before us, S6t OF which the Springfield
Republican gives the following account =
The conclusion Of the article is against il
entirely, aud the cases of experiment cited
| in support of the conclusion seem TO be
sound aud legitimate. We allow them and
the conclusion founded upon them their full
weight, while we state at the same time, that
the use Of beludonna was established upon
experiments which seemed equally satisiac-
tory The philosophy of the operation o
medicines used in this manner would sufii-
ciently explain the difference OF results and
conclusions. One poison s'made to take the
place of or to subordinate another poison
We use the term poison. 1t may be called
| diseased action. or whatever physicians may
choose. The brlladonna may have power
| I'VE do not say that it does) TO pre.occupy
the system, so that the poison, or predlspo
sing cause shall not gain entrance. After
this predsposing cause shall have gained
loothold, it may not have the power to eliml
nate it, and its administration under such
circumstances would, OF course, have nc
effect. Doubtless two classes have beer
experimental upon-thoee who have the
seeds of the disease in them, and those who
have not and between these two classes o.
subjects, we may nationally conclude, have
arisen the widely varying results. Besides
this, there is to be taken into consideration
the fact the medicine is from vegetable
and. ike all vegetable medicines, varies il
power according TO the mode in which il i,
prepared the form in which il is administer
ed. and even the soil from which it was orgi
naly taken. Here is another chance fol
differing results.
1--WE regard the question tonchihg bella
donna as u preventive of scaratina as among
The unsettled ones, and, being Unsettled, de
serving a careful examination by coy ply
sician for himself The opinion OF the Med
ical and Surgical journal s the opinion o
one man formed on experiments conducted
by others. Where results are so contradic
tory las the Journol conesses, by citing ex
ppriments upon the otherside Of the question,
1t is fair TO suppose that the conditions at
tachiug to the two classes Of experiments
were not the same. Belladonna may be
thorough preventive o: scarlatna in systems
in which the predisposition TO the disease
has not been established and be perfect!
powerless when that predispostion ha
gained n foothold. We therefore believe
IN giving the children thsir chances, especi
ally as it costs but little. and the medicine
giving in such doses as are claimed to b
eiiectual. can do no harm, or next TO none.
The friends Of the administration OF bella
donna ss safeguard against the attacks Q
sesrlst fever. have not psSp driven from thei