2G DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 



by allowing her babies to have any intercourse with houses or families where this 

 complaint is known to exist. Very young children have necessarily less resisting 

 power for disease than older ones ; and if the attack of measles can be warded off 

 until the child is a couple of years old, and has passed through the period of 

 cutting teeth, the chance of its passing successfully through the measles, and 

 making a complete recovery from them, is very greatly increased. 



Symptoms. Measles may be likened to a very bad influenza cold, with a rash. 

 The child appears " out of sorts ; " is peevish, perhaps ; does not take its food with a 

 relish ; and instead of participating in the amusements of its fellows, is more inclined 

 to keep quiet, to lie down on the sofa, or even to remain in bed. Then comes a 

 little sniffing at the nose, a running at the eyes, and perhaps a trifling sore throat. 

 These symptoms are very characteristic, and any nurse who has had the ordinary 

 experience of the nursery would, on seeing these, suspect the onset of measles. Any 

 child presenting the appearances we have mentioned should at once be separated from 

 its fellows until the disease has either passed away or declared itself. In these early 

 stages the child is feverish, and the temperature of the body (as measured by a 

 thermometer) will be found increased. It is probable also that a child is infectious 

 even in this very early stage, and its being placed in quarantine may be now too late 

 to prevent the spread of the disease, but we nevertheless strongly advise separation 

 as a precautionary and proper measure. 



After the child has suffered for two or three days (generally three) from this 

 feverish cold the rash appears, and when the rash appears the other symptoms 

 generally increase somewhat in severity. The rash appears first on the forehead, at 

 the roots of the hair; next it goes to the cheeks ; then the chest and surface of the 

 stomach are attacked ; and lastly the arms and legs. The rash consists of rose- 

 coloured spots, varying in tint very much, as the tints of red blotting-paper vary, 

 from a pale pink to a decided red. The spots are of an average size of a small split- 

 pea, and may be scattered in separate spots or so close together as to make the skin 

 look uniformly red. They are sometimes collected together into crescentic patches, 

 but the crescents as a rule are not easily recognised. Each spot is said to last about 

 twenty-four hours, and then fades, and the eruption ought to have subsided entirely 

 by the end of the fourth day after its appearance. As the eruption subsides the other 

 symptoms subside also : the feverishness abates; and at the end of a week, in favourable 

 and average cases, the child will have passed through its measles with very little 

 trouble to itself or its friends. 



We have described an average attack, but it not unfrequently happens that the 

 special symptoms which we have enumerated are so severe as to give real annoyance, 

 if not to cause alarm. Thus the eyes are not unfrequently much reddened and 

 inflamed. The child feels as if there were sand beneath the lids, it is unable to bear 

 the daylight, and the discharge from them may be considerable in amount. The 

 discharge from the nose may be copious, accompanied by incessant sneezing, and at 

 times bleeding from the nose may take place. The sore throat, too, may be trouble- 

 some, and the glands under the jaw and round the neck may become enlarged and 

 tender. The rash, as we have said, varies in amount, and in rare cases the whole 

 face becomes red arid swollen, and the poor child is a pitiable object, with its eyes 



