The bed-room should be capacious and well ventilated; fresh air frequently admitted; and if the season of the year permit, and there is no dampness of atmosphere, a window should be constantly open during the day:  it is also desirable to keep the chamber darkened in all cases, as there is always a tendency to inflammation of the eyes.

If these directions are not regarded, and a great heat of the apartment is permitted, with abundance of bed-clothes heaped upon the child, the hot bath is used, and hot and stimulating regimen given (upon the old and erroneous notion of bringing out the eruption), the mildest case will inevitably be converted into one of the most severe and dangerous.  Facts have abundantly shown that such measures invariably prove the most effectual means of exasperating the disease, and endangering life.

Regimen.—­This must be most sparing.  Cold water may be given whenever the child asks for it.  Lemonade should form the common drink during the fever; and gruel, barley-water, and roasted apples are all else that is required during this period, and not until the disease is going off must any change be made in the diet.

The above period having arrived, mildly nutritious food should be given, as chicken or mutton broth, beef-tea, arrow-root, tapioca, or sago; to be followed in a few days by the wing of a chicken or a mutton chop; remembering always, that solid animal food must at first be given cautiously and sparingly.  Wine or stimulants must be positively forbidden; unless, indeed, ordered by the medical man, for circumstances may arise which render them advisable.

The state of the bowels must be carefully attended to at this time.

The eruption.—­In the natural and mild form of this disorder the pustules generally break from the sixth to the eighth day; dry scabs succeed; and in about nine or ten days the parts heal perfectly, requiring no treatment.  In the more aggravated cases, however, in which the pustules are very numerous, running one into the other, and, bursting, discharge greatly, the whole surface of the body should be frequently and liberally dusted over with dried flour, or, what is better, starch powder.  The sores in this instance are always tedious in healing, and followed by the well-known pits or marks:  these arise from a loss of substance in the true skin, and occur more particularly on the face, from the great vascularity of this part causing the pustules to be more numerous here than elsewhere.  It is a popular error to suppose that by wearing masks of fine linen or cambric illined with particular ointments, these scars or pits may be prevented:  it is impossible to prevent them; and any local application, except a little cold cream or oil of almonds applied to the scabs when they harden, will prove more injurious than useful.  The child’s hands, however, should always be muffled to prevent its scratching or breaking the sores, for otherwise he will not be kept from thus attempting to allay the excessive itching which they occasion.