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Small Pox

ing up into the arm-pit, the glands or kernels of which occasionally swell.

On the tenth or eleventh day the pustule is surrounded by a circular, vivid, inflammatory blush that is very beautiful. This is regarded as a decisive proof of the presence of the genuine cowpox. On the eleventh day the centre of the pustule begins to grow of a dark color, which gradually increases to a brown or mahogany one by the end of the second week, when it begins to leave the skin, from which it is finally separated.

Treatment. If the pain, inflammation and swelling are excessive, reduce them by cold applications, a dose of salts, low diet and rest. Small-Pox.

Symptoms. Inflammatory fever; drowsiness; pain in the pit of the stomach, increased by pressure; pain in the back; vomiting; on the third day the eruption breaks out on the face, neck and breast in little red points that look like flea-bites, and which gradually appear over the whole body.

On the fifth day little round vesicles filled with a transparent fluid appear on the top of each pimple. The eruptive fever now declines. On the ninth day the pustules are perfectly formed, being round and filled with a thick, yellow matter, the head and face also swelling considerably. On the eleventh day the matter in the pustules is of a dark yellow color, the head grows less, while the feet and hands begin to swell. The secondary fever now makes its appearance. The pustules break and dry up in scabs and crusts, which at last fall off, leaving pits, which sufficiently mark the cause.

Such are the symptoms of the distinct or mild small-pox, but it frequently assumes a more terrible shape, in what is called the confluent. In the latter all the symptoms are more violent from the beginning. The fever is typhous; there is delirium, preceded by great anxiety, heat, thirst, vomiting, etc. The eruption is irregular, coming out on the second day in patches, the vesicles of which are flatted in; neither does the matter they contain turn to a yellow, but to a brown color.

Instead of the fever going off on the appearance of the eruption, it is increased after the fifth day, and continues throughout the complaint. The face swells in a frightful manner, so as to close the eyes; sometimes putrid symptoms prevail from the commencement.

Treatment. Place the patient in a cool, airy room, and let him be but lightly covered with bed clothes. Purge him moderately with salts, and give him thirty drops of laudanum every night.

The diet should consist of panada, arrow-root, etc., and his drink consist of lemonade or water.

If from any cause the eruption strikes in, put him into a warm bath, give a little warm wine whey, or the wine alone, and apply blisters to the feet.

Obstinate vomiting is to be quieted by the effervescing draught, with the addition of a few drops of laudanum.

In the confluent small-pox the treatment must be varied as it inclines more or less to the inflammatory or putrid type. If it inclines to the first, act as directed for the distinct kind; if to the last, employ all those means directed in typhus fever.

If the eyes are much affected, it will be necessary to bathe them frequently with warm milk, and to smear the lids with some simple ointment.

Itch.

Symptoms. An eruption of small pimples between the fingers, on the wrists, and over the whole body, which form matter, and are attended with an intolerable itching.

Treatment. The remedy is sulphur. It should be used internally with cream of tartar, so as to purge moderately, and at the same time be applied externally in the form of an ointment. The following practice is said to be effectual: Take of flour of sulphur 2 ounces, and mix it well with 2 drachms of nitre; throw the mixture into a warming-pan containing live coals, and pass the pan between the sheets in the usual manner. The patient, stripped to his skin, now gets into bed (taking care not to let the fumes escape), when the clothes should be tucked in all round him.

Repeat the process ten or twelve times. The sulphur ointment, applied after a prolonged tepid bath, will generally answer.

Herpes.

Symptoms. Broad, itchy spots of a reddish or white color breaking out in different places, which at last run into each other, forming extensive ulcers; after a time they become covered with scales, which fall off, leaving the surface below red; while the disease heals in one part it breaks out in another.

Treatment. The ointment of the oxide of zinc is a very common application. Washing the part with a solution of corrosive sublimate in water, one grain to the ounce, is, however, to be preferred. The citrine ointment may also be tried, If these fail, apply a strong solution of blue vitriol to the ulcers, and take a grain of calomel morning and evening. The decoction of sarsaparilla and guaiacum may be used with them. If the disease resists the mercury, try Fowler's Solution of Arsenic in doses of five drops three times a day, to be cautiously increased as directed for intermitting fevers. The warm bath should never be neglected in cutaneous complaints.

Scald-Head.