MEASLES

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1936, 18 March 1875, Page 2

MEASLES

The ineasies epidemic gate decision to thjetdoctors to;»peci*lase »«d moralise. In the Medical and Surgical Review there is a paper by Mr J.-Dunbar Tweedale, a surgeon in Fitzroy, in which he -treat?- pf some of the peculiarities of the epidemic. He says thatat brok'&ctatlnlAtfelaide, and in.about-ja Jnonth after in,,.l^£e^• b^u^nej the'first case occurring in'We'st Melbourne, andvjthe, epidemic travelling eastward street bystreet till it finally crossed..the r yarra.,,, ..The, symptoms and duration of the disease, he informs us, were similar here to those in the old world ; but there was ilsOalpecuHatoty which, so far as his experience goes, was special." -He .says 3 —•" One of the most curious.features about the disease is one which I hare not seen mentioned by medical writers on :the subject, and that is.the.recurrence of the eruption at the end of ten days or a fortnight, which lasted about two days, but unaccompanied by the irritating cough, and with only slightfebrilesymptoms 1. 'Chadfour cases in which this occurred, and have heard of one or two in which it happened even oftener. jr Previous attacks years before did not'fljjpear' to confer any immunity from the disease, and often those suffered most who had before been attacked in their childhood." .With regard to germs of the diseise', 5 or "pdisfon;" asUKecldctbr phrases.it nv Mr Tweedale says that. he js sure from 'personal observation that **' me peculiar poison, whatever,it may be, <loes . remain in the clothes and' bed-coverings, . especially the blankets, for, a considerable time, unless thoroughly cleansed and fumigated:" -;He is also apprehensive that the bad results of the disease - will v riot 1 pass away ■. with > the? departure of the epidemic,, and that those who' have suffered from the disease will, unless great care be used, be liable to unusual ill-bealth as the autumn rains and the time of fevers come. He draws attention to an important matter in .connection with thetreatment'of the "digeSse'raffd'points but that the old notion which iJtaropeaiw have brought here :at^toi Che. necessity-^f _ '•' keeping .The., measles, .jwarm^" operates badly in this colony. ' He:remarks that in a. cold, temperate climate like England, ' the]koe*i)ing warm is welLehpugh/butftfre •; with'tiie thermometer ranging; froin;Bp (o 100 degrees in the shade, thVeffcct on the patient is very different, and I am satisfied that many;'sufferers have lost their lives, or, at all events, been rendered supremely uncomfortable .during the' febrile 'stage' of this ; very 'unwelcome malady. ,„ by being kept too warm." It may not be out of place, now that W9 are upon the general question, {o remind our readers, not as professionVl, but as laymen, endeavoring .to use plain common sense/ ?tliac lives* uare lost in measles sometimes by a want of care towards the close of - the disease. *■. .The patient is apt to be impatient tnd carelesf, and thus leaves the safe condilionsbf the sick chamber, or the house, for exposure to the chance of, chills that raay ; ?kjU the otherwise recovering invalid^ ■ l^ig refers, of course, "mainly, i f .not exclusively, \to adult patients. Children are under control,; and if,.;the \?control be{judici9u«, generfllly - come ; out of the mlriad/ ttii-, harmed, the •xeeptions only illn»tritin|t the general incidonce of the^nil* is to : recorery under proper trwUmeßt:~B«l--jarat Miner. . >^psv^{>jq^^« ..