=Outlook.=--The average death rate of scarlet fever is about ten per cent. It is very fatal in children about a year old, and most of the deaths occur in those under the age of six. But the mortality varies greatly at different times and in different epidemics. In 1904-5, in many parts of the United States, the disease was very prevalent and correspondingly mild, and deaths were rare. =Duration of Contagion.=--The disease is commonly considered contagious only so long as peeling of the skin lasts. But it seems probable that any catarrhal secretion from the nose, throat, or ear is capable of communicating the germs from a patient to another person for many days after other evidences of the disease are past. Scarlet fever patients should always be isolated for as long a period as six weeks--and better eight weeks--without regard to any shorter duration of peeling, and if peeling continues longer, so should the isolation. =Treatment.=--In case a physician is unobtainable the patient must be put to bed in the most airy, sunshiny room, which should be heated to 70 deg. F., and from which all the unnecessary movables should be taken out before the entrance of the patient. A flannel nightgown and light bed clothing are desirable. The fever is best overcome by cold sponging, which at the same time diminishes the nervous symptoms, such as restlessness and delirium. The body is sponged--part at a time--with water at the temperature of about 70 deg. F., after placing a single thickness of old cotton or linen wet with ice or cold water (better an ice cap) over the forehead. The part is thoroughly dried as soon as sponged, and the process is repeated whenever the temperature is over 103 deg. F. There need be no fear that the patient may catch cold if only a portion of the body is exposed at any one time. If there is any chilliness following sponging, a bag or bottle containing hot water may be placed at the feet. It is well that a rubber bag containing ice, or failing this a cold cloth, be kept continually on the head while fever lasts. The throat should be sprayed hourly with a solution of hydrogen peroxide (full strength) and the nose with the same, diluted with an equal amount of water, three times a day. The outside of the throat it is wise to surround with an ice bag, or lacking this, a cold cloth frequently wet and covered with a piece of oil silk (or rubber) and flannel.