Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1871 — The Scarlet Fever. [ARTICLE]

The Scarlet Fever.

This dreadful scourge is reported as prevalent in several places in the State, and some cases are reported here. It seems that the disease is somewhat modified of late years, hut still it often assumes a malignant form, and baffles all skill. At present there are so few cases that alarm would be unwarranted; nevertheless, precaution is now, as ever, justifiable. The disease is propagated by infection and contagion, and appears to be transmitted in proportion to its malignity, that is, the worst cases are the most surely “catching.” The disease is not so readily transmitted in the earlier stages, as it is when convalescence is established. Then the skin comes off in a fine dust, and then contact with the patient is almost certain to infect. It is at this time that children, having been shut up in the house, are most anxious to get out, and their parents having just received their darlings back from a dangerous illness, are most inclined to gratify them. Thus it is that the disease so often assumes the characteristics of an epidemic, and destroys hundreds of children. There is no absolute protection of scarlet fever known to medical science. Caution will do much, and a preparation of belladonna is recommended by almost all physicians as a prophylactic, but wc believe no sound medical authority regards it as invariably effectual. The best thing that can be done is to guard against infection, and to follow the advice of a respectable physician.— Springfield, 111., Register.