[Infectious diseases 209]

Symptoms.—­Incubation lasts from three to five days without any special symptoms.  The onset is marked with chilly feelings, an active fever with temperature gradually rising.  There is severe pain in the muscles and in the joints which become red and swollen.  There is intense pain in the eyeballs, head, back and extremities.  Face looks flushed, eyes are sunken, the skin looks flushed and mucous membrane looks red.  This is the beginning rash.  The high fever falls quickly after three or four days, sometimes with sweating, diarrhea or nose bleed.  The patient feels stiff and sore then, but comparatively well.  A slight fever returns after two to four days, although this sometimes remains absent.  Pains and eruptions, like scarlet fever or hives, appear.  An attack usually lasts seven to eight days.  Convalescence is often long and slow, with stiffness and pain in the joints and muscles and great weakness.  A relapse may return within two weeks.

Physicians’ treatment for Dengue.—­An anti-plague serum is sometimes used, though with doubtful results.  The pain is controlled by doses of morphine of one-eighth to one-fourth of a grain every four or five hours.  Hyoscin, one hundredth of a grain, is also given for the pain.  The high temperature can be relieved by cold and tepid sponging.  Tonics are given during the convalescence and continued for some time.

Cerebro-spinal meningitis.—­This is an acute infectious disease.  It comes in epidemics, when there are many cases, or appears here and there as a separate case (sporadic).  It is caused by a specific organism (germ) and the disease attacks the membranes of the brain and spinal cord.

Of late years great progress has been made by patient investigation, and a serum is now prepared for the treatment of this disease.  The results of this treatment are better than the treatments formerly used, and there is good reason to believe that in a few years this treatment will be as effective in this disease as antitoxin is in diphtheria.

Cause.—­Young adults and children are affected most often.  Bad surroundings and over-exertion are predisposing factors.

Conditions.—­There is congestion of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord which are covered with an exudate confined on the brain, chiefly to the base.

Symptoms.  Ordinary Form.—­Incubation is of unknown length and occasionally marked by want of appetite, headache, and pain in the back.  The invasion is usually sudden, chill, projectile vomiting, throwing forward, severe headache, pain and rigidity of the back of the neck, pain in various parts of the body, skin over-sensitive, irritable, and temperature about 102 degrees, with all symptoms of an active fever.  Later, pains are very severe, especially in the head, neck and back; the head is drawn back; often the back is rigid; the muscles of the neck and