436 FEVEES, AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



" On the fourth day the summit of the tumour is yet more 

 prominent. Towards the end of that day the redness of the 

 centre begins to assume a somewhat grey colour. On the fol- 

 lowing days the pustules take on their peculiar characteristic 

 appearance, and cannot he confounded with any other eruption. 

 On the summit is a white circular point, corresponding with a 

 certain quantity of nearly transparent fluid which it contains, and' 

 covered by a thin and transparent pelliele. This fluid becomes 

 less and less transparent, until it acquires the colour and con- 

 sistence of pus. The pustule, during its serous state, is of a 

 rounded form. It is flattened when the fluid acquires a purulent 

 character, and even slightly depressed towards the close of the 

 period of suppuration, and when that of desiccation is about to 

 commence, which ordinarily happens towards the ninth or tenth 

 day of the eruption. The desiccation and the desquamation 

 occupy an exceedingly variable length of time ; and so, indeed, do 

 all the different periods of the disease. What is the least incon- 

 stant, is the duration of the serous eruption, which is about four 

 days, if it has been distinctly produced and guarded from all fric- 

 tion. If the general character of the pustules is considered, it 

 will be observed, that, while some of them are in a state of serous 

 secretion, others will only have begun to appear. 



" The eruption terminates when desiccation commences in the 

 first pustules; and, if some red spots show themselves at that 

 period of the malady, they disappear without being followed by 

 the development of pustules. They are a species of abortive 

 pustules. After the desiccation, the skin remains .covered by 

 brown spots, which, by degrees, die away. There remains no 

 trace of the disease, except a few superficial cicatrices on which 

 the hair does not grow. 



" The causes which produce the greatest variation in the periods 



