fit to reenter the world. =CHICKENPOX.=--Chickenpox is a contagious disease, chiefly attacking children. While it resembles smallpox in some respects, at times simulating the latter so closely as to puzzle physicians, it is a distinct disease and is in no way related to smallpox. This is shown by the fact that chickenpox sometimes attacks a patient suffering with, or recovering from, smallpox. Neither do vaccination nor a previous attack of smallpox protect an individual from chickenpox. Chickenpox is not common in adults, and its apparent presence in a grown person should awaken the liveliest suspicion lest the case be one of smallpox, since this mistake has been frequently made, and with disastrous results, during an epidemic of mild smallpox. One attack of chickenpox usually protects against another, but two or three attacks in the same individual are not unknown. The disease may be transmitted from the patient to another person from the time of the first symptom until the disappearance of the eruption. The disease ordinarily occurs in epidemics, but occasionally in isolated cases. =Development.=--A period of two weeks commonly elapses after exposure to the disease before the appearance of the first symptom of chickenpox, but this period may vary from thirteen to twenty-one days. =Symptoms.=--The characteristic eruption is often the first warning of chickenpox, but in some cases there may be a preliminary period of discomfort, lasting for a few hours, before the appearance of the rash; particularly in adults, in whom the premonitory symptoms may be quite severe. Thus, there may be chilliness, nausea, and even vomiting, rarely convulsions in infants, pain in the head and limbs, and slight fever (99 deg. to 102 deg. F.) at this time. The eruption shows first on the body, in most cases, especially the back. It consists of small red pimples, which rapidly develop into pearly looking blisters about as large as a pea to that of the finger nail, and are sometimes surrounded by a red blush on the skin. These blisters vary in number, from a dozen or so to two hundred. They do not run together, and in three to four days dry up, become shriveled and puckered, and covered with a dark-brown or blackish crust, and drop off, leaving only temporary red spots in most cases. The fever usually continues during the eruption. During the first few days successive fresh crops of fresh pimples and blisters appear, so that while the first crop is drying the next may be in full development. This forms one of its distinguishing features when chickenpox is compared with smallpox. In chickenpox the eruption is seen on the unexposed skin chiefly, but may occur on the scalp and forehead, and even on the palms, soles, forearms, and face. In many cases the eruption is found in the mouth, on its roof, and the inside of the cheeks. The blisters rarely contain "matter" or pus, as in smallpox, unless they are scratched. Scratching