"German measles" (_Rötheln_, or _Epidemic Roseola_) is a term applied to a contagious eruptive disorder having certain points of resemblance to measles, and also to scarlet fever, but exhibiting its distinct individuality in the fact that it protects from neither of these diseases. It occurs most commonly in children, but frequently in adults also, and is occasionally seen in extensive epidemics. Beyond confinement to the house in the eruptive stage, which, from the slight symptoms experienced, is often difficult of accomplishment, no special treatment is called for. There is little doubt that the disease is often mistaken for true measles, and many of the alleged second attacks of the latter malady are probably cases of rötheln. The chief points of difference are the following: (1) The absence of distinct premonitory symptoms, the stage of invasion, which in measles is usually of four days' duration, and accompanied with well-marked fever and catarrh, being in rötheln either wholly absent or exceedingly slight, enduring only for one day. (2) The eruption of rötheln, which, although as regards its locality and manner of progress similar to measles, differs somewhat in its appearance, the spots being of smaller size, paler colour, and with less tendency to grouping in crescentic patches. The rash attains its maximum in about one day, and quickly disappears. There is not the same increase of temperature in this stage as in measles. (3) The presence of white spots on the buccal mucous membrane, in the case of measles. (4) The milder character of the symptoms of rötheln throughout its whole course, and the absence of complications and of liability to subsequent impairment of health such as have been seen to appertain to measles. FOOTNOTE: [1] _Transactions of the Epidemiological Society_ (London, 1877). MEAT, a word originally applied to food in general, and so still used in such phrases as "meat and drink"; but now, except as an archaism, generally used of the flesh of certain domestic animals, slaughtered for human food by butchers, "butcher's meat," as opposed to "game," that of wild animals, "fish" or "poultry." Cognate forms of the O. Eng. _mete_ are found in certain Teutonic languages, e.g. Swed. _mat_, Dan. _mad_ and O. H. Ger. _Maz_. The ultimate origin has been disputed; the _New English Dictionary_ considers probable a connexion with the root _med-_, "to be fat," seen in Sansk. _meda_, Lat. _madere_, "to be wet," and Eng. "mast," the fruit of the beech as food for pigs. See DIETETICS; FOOD PRESERVATION; PUBLIC HEALTH; AGRICULTURE; and the sections dealing with agricultural statistics under the names of the various countries.