BEVERAGES.– Cold water, barley water, weak lemonade, etc., in small qualities, as frequently as desired. Drinking cold water, toast-water, or soda-water exerts a favourable influence on the kidneys, and tends to prevent subsequent diseases in those organs. To the same end sucking and swallowing small pieces of ice are both useful and grateful.
DIET.– Roast apples, grapes, strawberries, and other ripe fruits in season, toast, gruel, etc.; gradually returning, as the disease declines, to food of a more substantial kind. The fever being of short duration, wine or brandy may be dispensed with; but in malignant cases stimulants extract of meat etc., should be given freely, as directed in the Section on Enteric fever. The quantity of nourishment and stimulants should be regulated by the character of the pulse.
PREVENTION.– When Scarlet fever prevails in a family or neighborhood the administration of a dose of Belladonna, morning and night, to children who have not had the disease, will often entirely ward off an attack; should the disease occur, notwithstanding this treatment, it will, undoubtedly, greatly modify its severity. As a prophylactic we generally administer two drops of the Ist dec. dil. in half a wineglass of water the first thing in the morning. In severe epidemics the dose should be given twice daily for a few days. The value of this measure we have repeatedly verified in practice. Great cleanliness should be observed, and pure air be allowed to pay through the house.
SEQUELAE.– If there be no complications or sequelae. Scarlet fever may be expected to terminate favourably in about a week, although until the desquamation is complete the patient must remain isolated. Secondary diseases are, happily, infrequent after homoeopathic treatment. But in weakly or tubercular children the disease is liable to be followed by troublesome maladies, one of the most frequent of which is suppuration of the glands of the neck. This occurs sometimes to a frightful extent, involving the deep structures of the neck. When this condition obtains, the parts should be carefully cleansed with a lotion of Carbolic acid (I-100), or of Corrosive Sublimate (I in 4,000), and dressed with surgical dressings of gauze, etc. The following are the most common Sequelae, with the remedies generally indicated;–
(I) Glandular swellings discharges from the ears (Otorrhoea), or deafness.– Mercurius-Iodium, Ac.-Mur., Calcarea carb., Phosphorus, Aurum, Sulphur Mercurius-Biniod., Lycopodium, Silicea (Suppuration from the ear, with deafness); Alumina, Graphites, Calc-Phosphorus (obstinate cases); K.- Permang.( very offensive discharge); a weak solution form syringing the ear. Also Carbolic Acid lotion, as recommended (see Secale on Otorrhoea).
(2). Pains in the ear.– Pulsatilla, Belladonna
(3). Inflammatory affections of the eyes.– Belladonna, Aconite, Sulphur
(4). Croupy cough.– Hepar sulph., Iodium
(5). Acute desquamative nephritis and Dropsy.– Apis., Cantharis, Terebintha, Mercurius-Cor., Arsenicum, Helleborus, Apoc (see Secale on Nephritis).
This last affection, also termed post-scarlatinal Dropsy, is the most common sequel, and it occurs more frequently after mild than severe attacks. This is probably owing to the disease not having expended all its force; or it may be due to the neglect of proper caution during their period of recovery; or again, to the patient having been previously in a debilitated condition.
After the subsidence of the fever, usually from the tenth to the twentieth day, Acute Nephritis is liable to come on. Symptoms.– Frequent inclination to pass water, which is scanty, and often highly coloured or smoky from the presence of blood, and of high specific gravity. In examined through a microscope the tube-casts are cellular or transparent, or if tested by heat and Nitric acid, the urine deposits albumen. The pulse is quick, the skin dry, the patient is thirsty, and the body, face, and limbs are oedematous. Recovery is generally accompanied by copious secretion of urine.
ACCESSORY MEANS.– Warm baths, or cold sponging of the body, the wet pack, and drinking cold water, are of the first importance; they facilitate exertion by the skin, and relieve the congested kidneys. In the treatment of the disease, to promote the free action of the skin is the most effectual means for preventing post-scarlatinal Dropsy. It is know that Albuminuria, and its attendant evils, can be produced in an animal by glazing over half or three-fourths of the surface of its skin. To do so completely would cause speedy death. This shows the importance, in the treatment of Scarlatina of preserving the integrity of the skin. Nothing secures this so thoroughly as the wet pack (see Secale 26). A nourishing, digestible diet is also essential to meet he exhaustion which usually exists, but nitrogenous food (met, fish., etc.), must be given sparingly or not at all in the acute stages. A milk diet is then the best. Cold water may be given ad libitum. Finally, change of air is of great value, though the patient should not go out too early.
Occasionally the kidneys are, from the outset, the chief organs affected. Dr. Carroll Dunham of New York records several interesting cases in the Publications of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical Society, in which the renal affection was the form of the disease rather that a sequel. He states that the group of remedies in which we are most likely to find the simple for a case of this kind comprises, among others, Terebintha, Cantharis, Arsenicum, China., Carbo. V., and Phosphorus
39.– German Measles (Rubella Rotheln).
DEFINITION.– German measles is an acute infectious disease resembling in many respects both Measles and Scarlatina, affecting mostly children, attended by early enlargement of the lymphatic glands of the neck and adjacent parts, fever, a characteristic eruption, affording protection against a second attack of the same disease, but not against either Measles or Scarlatina.
SYMPTOMS.– After an incubation period of from two to three weeks, during which no symptoms are apparent, slight fever appears attended with malaise, headache, etc., next comes the eruptive stage, and this may come without previous warning. The rash first appears on the face and spreads downwards. It come s within a few hours of the initial symptoms. The colour is pale red, lighter than that of Measles, but discrete and not uniform as in Scarlatina. At the same time the lymphatic glands are affected, notably the post auricular (behind the ears), cervical, suboccipital, submaxillary and axillary. The rash lasts from twenty-four to forty-eight hours; but relapses are not uncommon, and the rash may keep reappearing and disappearing almost infinitely. Desquamation is either absent or in furfuraceous scales. Coryza and bronchial catarrh are frequently present, and sometimes oedema of the face. Valvular affection of the heart is not an uncommon complication.
DIAGNOSIS.– German Measles is distinguished from ordinary Measles by the mildness of the initial symptoms, the light colour of the rash, and the earlier date of its appearance; from scarlatina by the discrete rash which begins on the face, by the catarrhal symptoms, and the less severe sore-throat. From both it is distinguished by the peculiar involvement of the lymphatics independently of the sore-throat. When an epidemic prevalent there is generally little difficulty in deciding. German Measles is very seldom fatal.
TREATMENT.– In the initial fever,. and when glandular swellings and catarrhal symptoms come on.– Aconite
For sore-throat, rash, and headache.– Belladonna
Convalescence.– Sulph., Iodium, Arsen.
GENERAL MEASURES.– Rest in bed and light diet until all symptoms of fever and rash are over. if there are no complications the patient may return to ordinary ways of living when the skin is clear.
40.– Typhus Fever.
DEFINITION.– An acute specific form of fever, highly contagious and infectious, continuing form fourteen to twenty-one days, attended with a lethargic or confused condition of the intellect, and an eruption of a measles-like or mulberry appearance; it is the accompaniment of privation, and defective ventilation.
SYMPTOMS.– The precursory stage varies, but is usually short, so that the patient yields to the disease within the first three easy, giving up his employment and taking to hid bed; in this respect strongly contrasting to the protracted invasive stage of Enteric. Sensations of uneasiness, soreness, or fatigue, loss of appetite, frontal headache, and disturbed sleep are the early symptoms. The patient is often seized with a rigor (but less marked and severe than in Small-pox or internal inflammations), usually succeeded by dry heat of the skin, thirst, quick pulse, white, dry, often tremulous tongue, scanty and high-coloured urine, sometimes vomiting, heavy look or stupor, prostration, and muscular pains; towards evening there is irritability or restlessness, and if sleep occurs it is unrefreshing, being disturbed by dreams or sudden starts.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."