Since we are powerless to cut short an attack of measles by any remedial agents at present known to therapeutics, the intervention of the physician is limited to assisting the cases through to a safe termination. Quite a number of cases, as seen in private practice, require no special medicinal treatment, or at most one that is merely symptomatic. The value of the so-called specific treatment, such as by carbonate of ammonium, etc., has not been verified by experience.
In ordinary uncomplicated attacks, if the temperature should run high, in addition to the general rules as to diet and hygiene referred to before it will usually be found advisable to put the patient on some diaphoretic mixture, to which may be added a mild opiate. I know of nothing better than the formula found in the work of Meigs and Pepper on the Diseases of Children:
| Rx. | Potass. Citrat. | drachm i; |
| Spt. Ætheris Nit. | fl. drachm ii; | |
| Tr. Opii Deodorat. | minim xii vel xxiv; | |
| Syrupi | fl. drachm ii; | |
| Aquæ | fl. oz. ii. M. |
S. A teaspoonful every two or three hours for a child of five years of age.
Aconite in small doses has been well spoken of in this connection, but I have no personal experience in its use. Bromide of potassium, together with a few drops of syrup of ipecac., dissolved in syrup of wild cherry, acts pleasantly both on the cough and the nervous system.
The inunction of fatty substances, as originally proposed by Schonemann, and recently urged by Milton,43 is an excellent routine practice, and in addition to adding very much to the patient's comfort, has, perhaps, the merit of lessening somewhat the danger of infection to others. For this purpose one may use leaf lard, cold cream, or vaseline, to each ounce of which it is well to add a few minims of carbolic acid.
43 Archives of Dermatology.
Stimulants are rarely needed in uncomplicated measles, but Squire very wisely calls attention to the great value of wine in the depression following upon the crisis.
In spite of some excellent authority to the contrary, I cannot see that any benefit is to be derived from using severe measures to bring out an eruption that has undergone retrocession. As stated in another part of this article, the so-called striking-in of the rash is the result of the supervention of some complication, and not the cause of it; therefore, a rational course of action would be to ascertain the nature of the complicating trouble, and to endeavor to correct it, which, at the same time, would be the very best means of restoring the normal course of the disease.