THE SMALL POX SCARE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1172, 15 August 1884, Page 2

THE SMALL POX SCARE.

The appearance of this terrible disease in the country is doubtless sufficient to ceate alarm and to demand that every possible precaution should be taken to prevent its getting a hold, yet from all we can learn it is not of so pro. nonnee a character as to warrant the creating of a scare. The case of the mau Mouatt, who is now at Napier, appears to he a very mild one, and of the child at Invercargill it is really open to question whether it is anything more than Maoripox, while Dr DeLatour asserts that the supposid case at Port Chalmers is pure and simple chickenpox. It is decidedly a strange ooiuciience that the two children should have been on several occasions iu Monatt’s house in Port Chalmers, where he stayed for a night prior to his going to Naper. Ye: seeing that neither Mouatt’s wife or any of bis child en have hesn effli-ied, though tney must nauraPy have come in closm- contact wih him tnan did i lies • lit le chtl Iren of strange paren s, we cannon but conclude that Mouatt and the thilil Hannings at Invemargid, if even their diseise is smallpox, have hut a very .light taint. The warning, however, is sufficie .t to cause the Vaccination A it to he euniroa 1 to the very letter, and this, we hope, will be done The following short' artic es no ‘The Symptoms of the Disease,” *• Too Importance of Re-Vaccina ion,” and “ A Simple Remedy,” wo publish for general information : Symptoms of tub Disease. Smallpox runs through four stages, tho latent period lasting about 12 days from tho recaption of the poison ; tho primary fever continuing about two days; maturation period occupying about nine clays ; and the secondary fever, during which the eruption declines, lasting more 01 less as the attack has been mild or severe. The first symptoms are s - - Alternating dullness and heat, headache, followed sometimes by deli-iuui ; a thickly-furred white tomme ; face deeply flushed ; pulse har d and frequent; pain over tho oo ly, as if bruised ; especially in tho back and loins ; pa n or tenderness at the pit of the stomach and vomiting. The pain in the small f the hack and vo biting are very charac teriatie symptoms. On the third or fourth dav eruptions, often very minute, appear in red spots or small hard pimples. It comes first on tho face, neck an wrists, then spr ads over the body. This eruption is often formed on tho lining membranes of tho throat and bronchi, giving rise to sore throat, salivation, cough, etc. The pimples gradually increase in size and change to pustules, during which the eyelids and face swell. I h-> smell emanating from the pustules is both peculiar an 1 disagreeable, and is so distinguished from all other odours that it may ba at once recognised by thoso who have had experience of tho disease.

The pustules break out eight days after the first appearance of the eruplio i, ana discharge their contents ; scales then form, which dry up in the course of four or five days, if the patient is of a good constitu* lion. Purplish red stains arc left behind, which slowly fide away; iu other cases depressed soars reinriu. called “pits.” The above is a description of the severe form of confluent sma'lpox Iu modified smallpox the pustules are much fewer, and remain distinct from each other. As distinguished from chickenpox, its eruption suppurates—that is, “ runs,” and the fever is high. The eruption is also more perceptible to touch (feeling like shot under the skin) than in the eruption of measles. Importance of Re vaccination.' The following notification, pointing ont the importance of re-vaccination as a protection against the spread of smallpox has lire i forwarded to the va-ious local boards by the tec etary of the Victorian Central Baird of health, with the request that it should he ma le public : “ I'ho Central B>a;d of Health have reason to believe that notwithstanding that public attention has of late b»eu prominsntlv directed to the importance of revaccination, a largo amount of apathy and ignorance still exists on the subject, and that many persons hive neglected revaccination, relying on the protection which they have obtained from successful vaco’nation ir infancy. “The Board deem it advisable, therefore again to impress upon the public the paramount importance of re-vaccination during the presence of sm dipox m the Colony of Victoria. They desire to cad public attention to the fact that several eases of revaccination, performed by one of the public vaccinators on children aged from 10 to 14 years, proved remarkab'y sncoes'fu, although the children had neon successfully vaccinated in infancy, thus ■ cnionstraung that those children were su-iroptibla of the contagi >n of sma Ipox, notwithstanding their successful infantile vaccination; and i