130 THE HOME, FARM AM> JUSTNESS CYCLOPEDIA. 



It is astonishing that though this discovery is undoubtedly one of the 

 very greatest blessings to poor humanity it should now be thought so little 

 of, and that there should be some who actually decry and refuse to accept 

 it as such, when there is no doubt that if every one had followed the in- 

 structions as to revaccination, by this time smallpox would have ceased 

 altogether. 



No language can be too strong to depict the horrors of this disease, or to 

 denounce the culpable ignorance of those who, blinding themselves to the 

 blessings of vaccination, set the law at defiance and thus endanger the 

 . lives of their fellow-creatures. Supposing it could be proved (which it 

 cannot) that in some cases it has been the means of imparting disease, the 

 overwhelming number of cases where it has not, but has been a preven- 

 tive of this terrible malady, ought to show its necessity on the beneficent 

 principle of studying the greatest happiness of the greatest number. 



To children smallpox has ever been distressingly fatal, and though it is 

 impossible to give any course of treatment for its cure in an article of this 

 character, as so much depends upon the violence of the case, the state of 

 the patient's constitution, and the stage of the complaint, it may be said 

 that the old practice of close, hot rooms, warm clothing, and hot drinks 

 are proved mistakes ; cool, well- ventilated apartments, comfortably cool 

 bedclothes and cooling drinks having been found to be not only more 

 pleasant but more successful in their results. When the disease first 

 makes its appearance, if the fever be moderate and no professional advice 

 be procurable, the patient should be confined to bed, and cool drinks and 

 a dose or two of purgative medicine administered. 



FEVEES. 



MEASLES. An acute specific disease febrile and infectious, ushered in 

 with catarrhal symptoms and characterized by an eruption on the skin, 

 which appears usually on the fourth day. 



USUAL SYMPTOMS. After a period of incubation varying from twelve 

 to fourteen days (the period of incubation in cases produced 

 by inoculation is seven days), there is manifested alternate chilli- 

 ness and heat, a quickened pulse, aching in the limbs, slight headache, 

 soon followed by redness of the eyes, coryza, huskiness and hoarse cough. 

 On the fourth day there is an eruption of soft, circular, very slightly ele- 

 vated dusky red spots, which appear first on the forehead, and extend over 

 the face, neck, and whole body. The spots gradually coalesce and present 

 a peculiar crescentic or horseshoe shape. The spots disappear on pressure. 



