The Farmer's Own Book: A treatise on the numerous diseases of the horse / with an explanation of their symptoms, and the course of treatment to be pursued; also a treatise on the diseases of horned cattle

by J. D. Koogle

SCARLET FEVER.

I will here give to the reader the symptoms of Scarlet Fever. This disease has slain its thousands where the monster disease, Cholera has slain its hundreds, and it becomes every parent to feel it his duty to be careful when the disease is in the neighborhood. It is evident that the disease is contagious, in this form it can be taken by inhaling the breath from one that has it, and it is satisfactorily proven that it can be carried in woollen goods from one family to another.

Symptoms:—This disease commences with chilliness, dullness of the head and prostration of strength, according to the violence of the attack. There is sometimes nausea and vomiting, and the surface soon becomes florid and hot.

The throat is generally inflamed and the same appearance extends to the tongue, which is sometimes of a very deep scarlet, tinged with blue. If the symptoms are increased, it is called Scarlet Fever in a malignant form, the symptoms are very violent and the patient becomes pale and faint, the heart palpitates, the Fever continues to rise higher and higher, there is great danger.

The pulse now rises to one hundred and fifteen or twenty strokes in a minute. The pulse and the eruption will give the form and character of the disease. The eruption generally commences with red patches, which spread and unite till they cover the whole body. The eruption appears first on the face and neck, then on the legs, and the redness is greatest about the loins and bending of the joints, and on the hands and ends of the fingers. There is however not a perfect regularity in the eruption of Scarlet Fever, either in appearance or duration. In ordinary cases the eruption remains out about four days, when the grain of the skin begins to peel off and in a few days more it disappears. As the disease progresses, the tonsils becomes specked with ash colored spots and Ulceration follows. In favorable cases their slugs come off in eight or ten days.

If the Patient does not die by the ninth day, he will generally get well under proper management, though it may be three weeks, in some cases before he recovers. When this disease terminates favorably, all the symptoms generally yield, beginning about the fourth day after the eruption appears. The patient is more liable to relapse in this disease than any other, and caution should be used to prevent a relapse. Parents would do well to watch its first appearance and keep their children from its influence as much as possible using preventatives, such as keeping a tar plaster around the neck, keeping gum camphor, a little asafœtida and a small piece of garlic around the neck—this should be put into a small muslin bag and hung around the neck. Let the children eat small pieces of garlic during the day. These are considered preventatives by the Medical Faculty.

Treatment—Give mild purgatives, such as Oil, to keep the bowels open. Drink plentifully of balm tea, if this cannot be had, use Sage, Hysop, Saffron Blossom, or Dittany. This will bring out the eruption and keep it out full. If this can be accomplished, the danger will be very much lessened. This fact should be kept in view in all eruptive diseases. Keep a Tar Plaster around the neck; add to the tar a small portion of Spirits of Turpentine, keep this on for some time, renewing, adding turpentine enough to cause the skin to red. If the patient be not very careful when he gets out, he will take cold, and the glands of the neck will swell and suppurate and the ear will run, and if great attention be not paid, deafness will probably be the result.

They must be kept clean and Laudanum and Sweet Oil put into them every day till they get well.