Kidneys.—­There may be a mild form of inflammation in the earlier stages.  The severe form comes, if at all, usually in the third week.  It occurs in five to seven per cent of the cases.  It may occur in the mildest case, as such cases are not so closely watched.  The first symptom is a slight bloating of the eyes and face and spreads over the whole body.  Sometimes the swelling is very slight; at other times it is extreme.  The urine diminishes early and sometimes is wholly suppressed.  It may be light colored, smoky or straw colored.  This trouble usually runs for weeks.  The patient may get uremia and result fatally.

Heart.—­This also may be affected as the valves may become diseased.

Joints.—­Rheumatism also may occur, and other complications.

Chorea.—­Follows scarlet fever also, especially in girls from twelve to fifteen years.

Diagnosis.—­In most cases it is easy to distinguish from other diseases.  Dermatitis, inflammation of the skin ("Itis” always means inflammation).  In dermatitis the throat symptoms and strawberry tongue are absent.

From Measles.—­By the rapid onset, absence of cold symptoms of the nose, eyes, and bronchial tubes, blotchy eruptions that occur in measles.  There is no strawberry tongue in measles and no coughing at beginning.

Recovery.—­The prognosis is favorable in uncomplicated cases.  It also depends upon the character of the epidemic type of the disease.  In England it varies from thirteen to fourteen per cent.  In this country it is sometimes as low as two to four per cent.  The kidney trouble is always feared for it may result in uremia and death, or the acute may be followed by chronic nephritis or Bright’s disease, which will ultimately prove fatal.

Sanitary Care of Room and Patient.—­If you are exposed to this disease what can you do?  If a child, it must be put in a room by itself.  If several children have been exposed they should be put in separate rooms.  These rooms should have no carpet, curtains, rugs, etc., or any unnecessary furniture, for everything must be disinfected afterward, and sometimes destroyed.  The clothes worn just before the sickness should be sterilized in steam or boiled and then aired in the sun.  Anyone suffering from sore throat who has been about the patient should not be allowed to be near the healthy.  All the children must be kept from school.  It is well for them to spray their throats with a simple cleansing solution morning and night, with a full teaspoonful of boric acid to a glass full of warm water; or you can use common salt, but not strong enough to irritate the throat, about one teaspoonful to a glass of water.  If you have listerine or glyco-thymoline or any such disinfectant use them, one teaspoonful to sixteen spoonfuls of water.  Hot water itself is a very good gargle, very healing and cleansing.  Anyone who enters the sick room and comes out again should wear a sheet all over him.  On coming out, he or she should leave this sheet outside the window of another room.  If the person has a beard he should wash his face with a 1 to 2000 solution of corrosive sublimate, and the hands also, before leaving the sick room.  The one who waits upon the sick one should remain there, but everyone can not do so.  They must stay away from the healthy if possible.