9. SCARLATINA SIMPLEX, OR SIMPLE SCARLET-FEVER.
In the mildest form of the disease, called scarlatina simplex, or simple scarlet-fever, there is no inflammation of the throat, the fever is moderate, and the patient suffers very little. Unfortunately this form is so rare, that many experienced physicians never saw a case. Probably, it was a case belonging to this class, which was mentioned a number of years ago by one of the writers on Priessnitz's practice, when a lady with scarlet-fever joined a dancing party at Græfenberg, a case for reporting which the author[2] has been ridiculed by the opponents of the Water-Cure, but which by no means belongs to impossibilities; for scarlatina simplex having been declared by eminent physicians (not of Priessnitz's school) to be "scarcely a disease,"[3] becoming fatal only through the officiousness of the doctor,[4] and other physicians of note recommending cold rooms and open air through the whole course of the disease,[5] or at least towards the latter part of it;[6] I do not see why a patient under water-treatment should not be safer in producing perspiration by dancing than in sitting in a cold room or in walking in the open street. The fact, of course, is unusual, and I do not exactly recommend its practice, but it is not at all impossible, and ridiculing the reporter of it shows either ignorance of the disease or a bad will towards the new curative system, to which those are most opposed who know the least of it.
10. SCARLATINA ANGINOSA, OR SORE-THROAT SCARLET-FEVER.
Wherever the throat is affected, which is almost always the case, the disease is called scarlatina anginosa, or sore-throat scarlet-fever. This is the form described at the commencement of this article. There are several varieties, however, of scarlatina anginosa.
In any case, the organism, invaded by the contagious poison, will try to rid itself of its enemy. The reaction is necessarily in proportion to the violence of the miasma and to the quantity of organic power struggling against it.
11. MILD REACTION (ERETHIC).
If the poison is not virulent, and the body of the patient in a favorable condition, the reaction is mild, and the poison is eliminated without any violent efforts on the part of the organism. This is the case in scarlatina simplex, and in mild forms of scarlatina anginosa.