CO NT A GIO US DISEASES. 8 7 



grouped together in the zymotic class, without intro- 

 ducing changes in nomenclature or classification, 

 which might cause inconvenience in practice. . 



Some of the contagious fevers are among the most 

 terribly fatal maladies which we are called upon to 

 treat, but many of us feel convinced that these of all 

 diseases are the most preventible, for this has been 

 clearly proved by the great success which has already 

 attended measures as yet but imperfectly carried 

 out. Yet year after year, in consequence probably of 

 those who make our laws being ignorant of the facts, 

 and seldom brought face to face with actual cases of 

 disease, little is done to reduce the virulence, or to 

 arrest the spread of these frightful scourges, some of 

 which, as scarlet fever, are almost as fatal to the 

 children of persons in easy circumstances as they are 

 to the children of the classes whose day's work seldom 

 produces much more than is sufficient 'for the day's 

 sustenance, and sometimes less than enough to pre- 

 serve the body in a state fit for work. 



The ignorance even of many very intelligent persons 

 concerning the simplest practical requirements for 

 limiting the spread of contagious diseases is deplorable, 

 so that in epidemics the scourge is sometimes fostered 

 and spread by the very persons in charge of the sick, 

 sometimes by the patients being allowed to mix with 

 the healthy and distribute far and wide the germs of 

 disease. Heads of families are not always aware that 

 a child who has completely recovered from scarlet 



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