All that is, generally speaking, necessary during the eruptive fever, is to keep the patient cool and easy, allowing him to drink freely of some weak diluting liquors; as balm-tea, barley-water, clear whey, gruels, &c. He should not be confined to bed, but should sit up as much as he is able, and should have his feet and legs frequently bathed in lukewarm water. His food ought to be very light; and he should be as little disturbed with company as possible. Much mischief is done at this period by confining the patient too soon to his bed, and plying him with warm cordials or sudorific medicines. Every thing that heats and inflames the blood increases the fever, and pushes out the pustules prematurely. This has numberless ill effects. It not only increases the number of pustules, but likewise tends to make them run into one another; and when they have been pushed out with too great violence, they generally fall in before they come to maturity. The good women, as soon as they see the small-pox begin to appear, commonly ply their tender charge with cordials, saffron, and marigold-teas, wine, punch, and even brandy itself. All these are given with a view, as they term it, to throw out the eruption from the heart. This, like most other popular mistakes, is the abuse of a very just observation, _that when there is a moisture on the skin, the pox rise better, and the patient is easier, than when it continues dry and parched_. But that is no reason for forcing the patient into a sweat. Sweating never relieves unless where it comes spontaneously, or is the effect of drinking weak diluting liquors. Children are often so peevish, that they will not lie a-bed without a nurse constantly by them. Indulging them in this, we have reason to believe, has many bad effects both upon the nurse and child. Even the natural heat of the nurse cannot fail to augment the fever of the child, but if she too proves feverish, which is often the case, the danger must be increased[89]. Laying several children who have the small-pox in the same bed has many ill consequences. They ought if possible never to be in the same chamber, as the perspiration, the heat, the smell, &c. all tend to augment the fever, and to heighten the disease. It is common among the poor to see two or three children lying in the same bed, with such a load of pustules that even their skins stick together. One can hardly view a scene of this kind without being sickened by the sight. But how must the effluvia affect the poor patients, many of whom perish by this usage[90]!