Caution.—­An ordinary case of scarlet fever does not need much medicine.  Nursing and care are essential.  Even the slightest case should be watched.  There is always danger of the eyes, ears and kidneys becoming affected.  If the child complains of pain in the head the ear must be examined.  If the urine passed is small in quantity, or if there are any signs of dropsy, treatment must be given at once.  You have heard very much lately about the sting of the honey bee for rheumatism.  I often use a preparation of this for the kidney troubles in scarlet fever.  The name is Apis Mel.  I use the second or third homeopathic attenuation in tablet form and give one to two about every two hours.  I have found this effective in such cases where the urine is small in quantity, and there is some dropsy.  The lightest cases can have dropsy, especially if special care is not taken when scaling goes on.

I was once attending three children for scarlet fever.  The one that had it in a mild form became affected with dropsy.  For this I steamed her.  In her case I placed her in a cane-seated chair, pinned a blanket tightly around her so as to thoroughly cover her, put a pail of cool water under her chair and dropped into the pail a hot baked brick.  The hot brick caused steam to rise from the water and enveloped the child, producing sweating.  This was done frequently, and the child considered it a joke, but it relieved her of the bloat.  It was in the country and these crude means produced the desired result.  By attaching a rubber tube to a steaming kettle and introducing the steam under the covering the same result can be produced.  Sometimes you may not have all things you wish, then you must make use of what is handy.  You would be surprised perhaps to know how much can be done to relieve sickness by what can be found in every house. (For disinfectants see chapter on nursing.)

[176 Mothers’ remedies]

Measles.—­Measles is an acute infectious disease, distinguished by a characteristic eruption on the mucous membranes and skin.  It is very contagious and spreads through the atmosphere.  Almost everyone is susceptible to measles and suffers at least one attack.  The disease is not frequent during the first year of life.  It prevails in all countries.

Incubation.—­This varies from thirteen to fifteen days.  In calculating this period we include the time from exposure to the appearance of the eruption.  One attack generally protects the person from another attack.  The period of the greatest danger of taking it extends through the period of the eruption.  It diminishes as the eruption fades.  From this we learn that the infection in measles takes place generally in the incubation stage.