Surely, then, prevention is better than cure. I shall now mention one or two of these so-called infantile troubles that some young mothers who read this brief paper may know a little more about them and their causes. I advise everyone who has the care of children to keep in the house in its little case a clinical thermometer. The family doctor will be very pleased, I am sure, to show parents how to use it, and whenever the temperature mounts over a hundred the physician should be called in.
_Measles._—The ailment is ushered in somewhat similarly to a bad cold, and often passes at first for a touch of influenza. But the girl is feverish with loss of appetite, and no heart for play. Then about the third day come out the rose-coloured spots, first on the brow. They are so close together as to almost coalesce. The fever now gets worse, and the case is one for the doctor to superintend; but the parents ask the question: “Will she get over it?” I am glad to answer in the affirmative, only that nasty wee word “if” comes in—_if_ the case does not become complicated, for bronchitis may ensue, or inflammation of the lungs itself, and then there is great danger. And bear this in mind; the child that has been treated while in health in a common-sense way, not “plotted,” over-coddled, or over-crammed as to food, has by far and away the greatest chance of getting over this ailment or scarlatina either.
_Scarlatina._—When this becomes epidemic in small towns and badly-drained villages, the Angel of Death has indeed spread his wings on the blast.
If there is scarlet fever or scarlatina (the milder sort) about, and your little girl begins to ail from no apparent cause, suffering from loss of appetite and cheerfulness, if she has chills alternating with flushing, hot skin and uneasy sleep, with a little headache and maybe sore throat, with a high temperature and furred tongue, having little red papillæ showing through—the “strawberry tongue”—then in all probability she has an attack of scarlatina. We shall hope it is to be a simple one. Cure it you can’t; but the little patient may be guided through it.
The doctor is the man to trust. But there is one thing you can assist him in most materially, and that is in seeing that the patient is completely isolated from the rest of the house, for the simplest cases in one child may generate the worst in others. It is a more dangerous disorder than measles, and mind that, until the doctor gives a clean bill of health, and the skin has entirely peeled, no other child should be allowed into the room. Indeed, the success in any one case depends on careful nursing, and isolation will prevent it spreading. Disinfectants must of course be used—but the doctor will tell you all this—and food taken from the room must not even be given to the cat or dog. She will pull through if scientifically treated, and soon grow out of any little weaknesses that may remain.