[226]. “Now all my carefully conducted inquiries induce me to believe that the disease comes from drain-poison. All the cases into which I could fully inquire have brought conviction to my mind that there is a direct law of sequence in some peculiar conditions of atmosphere between diphtheria and bad drainage; and if this be proved by subsequent investigations, we may be able to prevent a disease which, in too many cases, our known remedies cannot cure.”—W. Carr, Esq., Blackheath. British Medical Journal, Dec. 7, 1861.
[227]. Let the infusion of roses be made merely with the rose-leaves and boiling water.
[230]. Edinburgh Medical Journal.
[231]. On the 4th of March, 1856, I had the honor to read a Paper on the Treatment of Scarlet Fever before the members of Queen’s College Medico-Chirurgical Society, Birmingham,—which Paper was afterward published in the Association Journal (March 15, 1856); and in Braithwaite’s Retrospect of Medicine (January-June, 1856); and in Ranking’s Half-Yearly Abstract of the Medical Sciences (July-December, 1856); besides in other publications. Moreover, the Paper was translated into German, and published in Canstatt’s Jahresbericht, iv. 456, 1859.
[232]. In the Times of September 4, 1863, is the following, copied from the Bridgewater Mercury:
“Gross Superstition.—In one of the streets of Taunton there resides a man and his wife who have the care of a child. This child was attacked with scarlatina, and to all appearance death was inevitable. A jury of matrons was, as it were, impaneled, and, to prevent the child ‘dying hard,’ all the doors in the house, all the drawers, all the boxes, all the cupboards were thrown wide open, the keys taken out, and the body of the child placed under a beam, whereby a sure, certain, and easy passage into eternity could be secured. Watchers held their vigils throughout the weary night, and in the morning the child, to the surprise of all, did not die, and is now gradually recovering.”
These old women—this jury of matrons—stumbled on the right remedy, “all the doors in the house ... were thrown wide open,” and thus they thoroughly ventilated the apartment. What was the consequence? The child who, just before the opening of the doors, had all the appearances “that death was inevitable,” as soon as fresh air was let in, showed symptoms of recovery, “and in the morning the child, to the surprise of all, did not die, and is now gradually recovering.” There is nothing wonderful—there is nothing surprising to my mind—in all this. Ventilation—thorough ventilation—is the grand remedy for scarlatina! Oh, that there were in scarlet fever cases a good many such old women’s—such a “jury of matrons”—remedies! We should not then be horrified, as we now are, at the fearful records of death, which the Returns of the Registrar-General disclose!
[233]. For the prescription of the acidulated infusion of roses with syrup, see page [1221].