80 FLORA HOMCOPATHICA. 
fell ill of the scarlet fever, without my knowledge, whom I 
could only treat according to my general plan detailed above. 
J gave my convalescent a smaller dose of Belladonna every 
three or four days, and she remained in perfect health. 
“‘T now earnestly desired to preserve the other five children 
from infection, their removal being impossible; and I thus 
reasoned: a remedy capable of quickly checking a disease in 
its first onset, must be its best preventive, and the following 
occurrence strengthened my opinion. Some weeks previously, 
three children of another family were ill of severe scarlet 
fever; the eldest daughter alone, who had been taking Bella- _ 
donna internally for an external affection of the joints of her 
fingers, to my great astonishment escaped the infection, although 
in other cases of epidemics she had readily taken them. 
“This decided me to administer to the other five children 
very small doses of this excellent remedy, as a preservative, 
and as its action lasts only three days, I repeated the dose every 
seventy-two hours, and they all remained in perfect health, 
though surrounded with infection. 
“In the meantime I was called in to attend another family, 
where the eldest son was ill of scarlet fever. I found him in 
the height of the fever, with the eruption on the chest and arms. 
He was seriously ill, and it was too late to give the specific 
prophylactic remedy. But wishing to preserve the other three 
children, of four and two years of age, and nine months, I 
directed the parents to give the requisite dose of Belladonna, 
every three days, and had the happiness of seeing them entirely 
escape the disease, in spite of constant intercourse with their 
sick brother. 
“ Also, a number of other occasions presented themselves, in 
which this specific preventive remedy never failed. 
“To prepare this remedy for preventing the infection of 
scarlet fever, we take a handful of the fresh leaves of the wild 
Atropa Belladonna, at the season when the flowers are not yet 
blown ; these we bruise in a mortar to a pulp, and press the 
