xix BACTERIA AND DISEASES 293 



Measles often brings on diseases of the air passages, 

 as bronchitis, pneumonia, and consumption. Death is 

 more often due to such complications than to the dis- 

 ease directly. The only means of preventing its spread 

 is to isolate the patient during the entire time and to 

 disinfect all bedclothes, dishes, etc., used in the sick 

 room. 



German measles is a disease quite different from 

 either measles or scarlatina, but the skin eruption 

 resembles both. It is a contagious disease whose cause 

 is not known. It is much milder than measles and 

 rarely proves fatal. 



203, Smallpox. Smallpox is an infectious and 

 highly contagious disease whose cause is not known, but 

 it is believed to be due to bacteria. On the third day an 

 eruption of the skin appears in the form of small round 

 lumps, shotty eruptions, first on the forehead and face, 

 but later all over the body. In these lumps a clear 

 fluid is found in the early stages, later a yellow pus, and 

 finally a scab is formed about the twelfth day. The 

 scabs begin to fall off on the fourteenth day, and in the 

 course of three or four days they all disappear, usually 

 leaving pits or scars. The disease is very contagious 

 from the first and until every scab has fallen off and 

 every sore has fully healed. 



The disease is inhaled from the air and probably 

 never taken through water or foods. The patient should 

 be isolated, and all articles about the patient and the 

 room thoroughly disinfected or, still better, burned. No 

 disease can be more easily spread abroad than smallpox. 



