_What_ NOT _to do_.—Do not, then, apply either leeches or blisters to the throat; do not paint the tonsils with caustic; do not give aperients; do not, on any account, give either calomel or emetic tartar; do not, for the first few days of the illness, be afraid of _cold air_ to the skin, and of cold water as a beverage; do not, emphatically let me say, _do not_ let the child leave the house for at least a month from the commencement of the illness. My firm conviction is, that purgatives, emetics, and blisters, by depressing the patient, sometimes cause ordinary scarlet fever to degenerate into malignant scarlet fever. I am aware that some of our first authorities advocate a different plan to mine. They recommend purgatives, which I may say, in scarlet fever, are my dread and abhorrence. They advise cold and tepid spongings—a plan which I think dangerous, as it will probably drive the disease internally. Blisters, too, have been prescribed; these I consider weakening, injurious, and barbarous, and likely still more to inflame the already inflamed skin. They recommend leeches to the throat, which I am convinced, by depressing the patient, will lessen the chance of his battling against the disease, and will increase the ulceration of the tonsils. Again, the patient has not too much blood; the blood is only poisoned. I look upon scarlet fever as a specific poison of the blood, and one which will be eliminated from the system, _not_ by bleeding, _not_ by purgatives, _not_ by emetics, but by a constant supply of fresh and cool air, by the acid treatment, by cold water as a beverage, and for the first few days by a strict antiphlogistic (low) diet. Sydenham says that scarlet fever is oftentimes “fatal through the officiousness of the doctor.” I conscientiously believe that a truer remark was never made; and that under a different system to the usual one adopted, scarlet fever would not be so much dreaded. If any of my medical brethren should do me the honor to read these pages, let me entreat them to try my plan of treating scarlet fever, as my success has been great. I have given full and minute particulars, in order that they and mothers (if mothers cannot obtain medical advice) may give my plan a fair and impartial trial. My only stipulations are that they must _begin_ with my treatment, and _not mix_ any other with it, and carry out my plan to the very letter. I then, with God’s blessing, shall not fear the result; but shall rejoice that I have been of some little service in my generation. 221. _How soon ought a child to be allowed to leave the house after an attack of Scarlet Fever?_