32 HOME TREATMENT AND 



even when the scarlet fever patients were in bed 

 side by side with the above operation cases. 

 Several incidents, however, in connection with 

 this outbreak call for most careful attention. On 

 23rd February a boy was admitted to the hospital 

 to be operated on for hernia. The lad in 

 next bed had, on the 26tb, been in with scar 

 fever for nearly forty-eight hours. When I \v 

 round the ward on 1st March I had occasion to 

 examine this hernia case. I found to my amaze- 

 ment that the lad had scarlet fever. " How is 

 this?" I inquired. "Has our plan of treatment 

 failed ? " On inquiry the fact came out that on 

 the 26th, early in the morning, the hernia patient 

 borrowed the washing flannel and towel from 

 the scarlet fever case in the next bed, and that 

 morning, before he was rubbed with eucalyptus 

 oil, he had used both. The mode of infection 

 thus became apparent, and no surprise need be 

 manifested at the result. 



Further, I discovered that on that very morn ing 

 the lad had been out of bed, had dressed, and 

 had taken breakfast to six boys in an adjoining 

 eye ward, where there had been no scarlet fever 

 cases. He handed them their bread and butter, 

 &c. This occurred on 1st March. On 3rd March 

 two of the lads in this ward developed scarlet 

 fever, and a third on 4th March, the last case being 

 the only one in which peeling was not well 



