The Mother's Manual of Children's DiseasesWest, Charles
Science
The Mother's Manual of Children's Diseases
West, Charles
Pediatrics -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
The early symptoms of measles are those of a bad feverish cold; the eyes
grow red, weak, and watery, and are unable to bear the light, the child
sneezes very frequently, sometimes almost every five minutes, and is
troubled by a constant short dry cough. About the fourth day, a rash
makes its appearance on the face, forehead, and behind the ears, and in
the course of the next forty-eight hours travels downwards over the body
and limbs, and then in another forty-eight hours it fades in the same
way, being at its height on the body when it has already begun to
disappear from the face. It first shows itself in the form of small red
circular spots, not unlike fleabites, but very slightly raised above the
somewhat reddened skin, and looking for a few hours not unlike the very
early stages of small-pox, before the eruption has lost the character of
minute pimples. On the face the spots sometimes run together, and then
form irregular blotches about a third of an inch long by half that
breadth; while elsewhere they present an irregular crescentic
arrangement. As the rash fades it puts on a dirty yellowish red
appearance; the surface of the skin often becomes slightly scurfy, and
it continues somewhat stained of a reddish hue for some days after the
eruption has disappeared.
The only other point on which it is necessary to dwell is this, that the
symptoms do not, as in small-pox, become less severe immediately on the
appearance of the eruption, but continue just as troublesome as before
for twenty-four hours or more, the voice being hoarse, the cough even
more incessant, and the throat often slightly sore and red. Soon,
however, improvement becomes apparent, the fever lessens, the cough
grows looser; and in less than a fortnight the patient is usually
convalescent.
The above is pretty nearly the ordinary course of measles, for we do not
meet with that extreme variation in its severity which is observed in
scarlatina, where one child will seem scarcely to ail at all, while its
brother or sister may be in a state of extreme peril. It is not wise,
however, to trust a case even of apparently mild measles to domestic
management, for while the cough is troublesome in almost every case, the
ear of the experienced doctor is needed to ascertain whether it is
merely the cough of irritation which attends the measles, or the graver
cough due to bronchitis.
One other caution will not be out of place. The danger of exposure to
cold is very real, but that does not necessitate the loading the child
with excessive covering, or the abstaining from washing its hands and
face. The child should be kept moderately cool; and sponging its hands
and face frequently with tepid water soothes it and relieves the painful
irritation and itching.
=German Measles.=--There is a disorder which seems to hold a middle
place between measles and scarlatina, akin to both, identical with
neither, and furnishing no sort of protection from their occurrence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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