upon the diet and regimen during this period. Great attention must still be paid to the state of the bowels, and, indeed, to all the secretions and excretions. Even when scarlet fever has been of the mildest form, a parent cannot observe too much care and caution during the period of convalescence. One of the most common and serious of the after-disorders of this fever is dropsy; a disease much more frequent, as far as my experience goes, after a mild than after a severe attack of scarlet fever. This, in all probability, is owing to neglect at this period; for I have generally been able to trace the source of the dropsy, in the cases which I have seen, to some accidental or heedless exposure of the child to a cold or damp atmosphere. Peeling off of the cuticle, and falling off of the hair. To promote the more easy separation of the cuticle from the surface of the body, a warm or tepid bath may be usefully employed at the close of the disease. It will, moreover, greatly contribute to the comfort of the child, and induce a more healthy condition of the skin. Occasionally the cuticle of the whole hand and fingers will peel off unbroken, when it will resemble precisely a glove in shape. As is the case in all fevers, more or less, so particularly after scarlet fever, there is a great tendency to the falling off of the hair. It will be always well, therefore, to shave the head at this time, and exhibit daily a tepid shower bath, as early as the strength of the child will permit. Cautions, &c. -The contagious character of this disease requires the separation of the invalid from the rest of the family; and, when it is practicable, the children should be removed to a distance. This measure is imperatively called for, when the form of the disease is very severe in its character. Great caution must also be exercised, after the convalescence of the patient, that the other children are not brought into too early contact with him: for infection may be thus produced, though several weeks may have elapsed from the period of the peeling off of the skin. The period at which the disease shows itself after the exposure of an individual to sources of contagion, is exceedingly various. One child will be seized within a few hours; another, not for some days; and now and then (though rarely,) five or six weeks have intervened be-. tween the period of exposure and the manifestation of the disease. When this disease is rife in a family, it will frequently affect the individuals composing it very differently. Some escape altogether; others have the mild form of the complaint; others the severe; and, again, the attendant in the sick room may be attacked with the sore throat and fever only, both of which may subside without any appearance of a rash. - In conclusion, this disease is a complaint of infancy and childhood, rather than of adult age; generally affects the same individual but once during his life; and, though examples of a second attack have occurred, such a circumstance is extremely rare. Measles consists of a fever, in which the mucous lining of the air-passages is principally affected, and which, after about three days' duration, results in an eruption of a red rash over the surface. It depends upon a specific contagion ;— occurs most frequently during childhood and adolescence, though no age is exempt from it;-and affects the system but once; a peculiarity to which an exception is very rare, proved by the few instances of the kind which have been recorded. The period at which the disease manifests itself after infection is various-generally about the ninth day; it has, however, been delayed until the sixteenth. Description of the disease. The child infected will be observed not to be as well as usual, less active, and out of spirits: his appetite will fail, and his sleep be restless and disturbed. It will soon be evident that he has apparently taken a cold in his head, and that this is accompanied by fever. His voice will be hoarse; there will be frequent cough, headach, sneezing, running from the nose and eyes-the eyelids being somewhat swollen, and the eyes inflamed; -the skin will be hot and dry, and he will complain of occasional chilliness. In the course of the next two or three days, these symptoms will increase in severity, and perhaps be accompanied by oppression at the chest and hurried breathing, and towards evening by slight delirium. On the fourth day, the rash will appear, but the symptoms will be little, if at all, mitigated; indeed, they will sometimes increase in severity. The eruption will first be perceived about the head and face, in the form of small red spots, at first distinct from each other, but soon coalescing, and forming patches of an irregular crescent-like or semilunar figure, of a dull red colour, and slightly elevated (giving a sensation of hardness to the finger), while portions of the skin intervening between them will retain their natural appearance, At this time the eruption will also be found on the inside of the mouth and throat, and the hoarseness will consequently increase. On the fifth day the rash usually covers the whole surface of the body, with the exception of the legs and feet; and is now very vivid on the face, which is not unfrequently so much swelled, especially the eyelids, that the eyes are quite closed up, as in small-pox. On the sixth day, it is fully out on the extremities, and is beginning to fade on the face. On the eighth, it is fading from all parts; on the ninth, it is hardly perceptible; and has entirely disappeared on the tenth day from the commencement of the fever, or the sixth from its own first appearance. As the fading proceeds, the spots drop off in the form of little branny scales, which are sometimes, from their minuteness, scarcely perceptible. They leave a slight discolouration on the skin, with considerable itching. Such is the ordinary course of this disease; occasionally, however, deviations are met with. Character of measles compared with scarlet fever and small-pox. -Under the description given of Scarlet Fever, are noticed several signs by which that disease may be distinguished from measles: to |