Relapses are sometimes caused by the child getting about too soon, and by indulgence of the appetite, particularly for food:  a proper degree of restraint, therefore, must be placed upon the child by the parent, who cannot too strictly carry out the directions of the medical attendant 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.

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, etc.—­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 between 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.

Sect.  VI.—­Measles.

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.