PREVENTION 01 SCARLET FEVER 63 



scarlet fever, and that it would be necessary to 



removt he isolation hospital. Gladly would 



we have done anything to avoid this parting 



M -UL'iit to be a very great 



rofession if they could see their way, 



as I contend they can see it by this treatment, to 



avoid oration of feelings, and at the same 



10 practically guarantee that the course of the 

 disease will be greatly lightened. I certainly 

 should not recommend that the isolation hospital 

 should be abandoned, but its scope and function 

 should l>e widened. The home treatment of 

 scarlet fever is, I contend, the best possible ; l.ut 

 the isolation hospital ought to be used for 



pose of taking in, for short periods, children 

 who are obviously failing in health. I know that 

 touch a matter of the widest public interest 

 and importance. I strongly advocate the weighing 

 of children from time to time. 1 have often found 

 that loss of weight shows a child's falling off in 

 health long before any other sign becomes visible 

 even to the practised eye of the medical man. 

 Among the thousands of boarded-out children 

 from Dr. Barnardo's Homes, this system of 

 weighing is regularly carried out with the most 

 satisfactory results. It is at this early stage, before 

 any signs can be detected, that the insidious 



onset of tuberculosis trouble can be discovered and 

 combated. A short period of kind and careful 



