nor even any roughness of the
surface left behind.

Slight feverishness sometimes precedes the appearance of the rash for
twenty-four hours; but the cough, and sneezing, and running at the eyes
and nose, which usher in measles are entirely absent. The rash usually
appears in the course of twenty-four hours, is never postponed beyond
the second day; it begins, like that of measles, on the face, and, like
it, travels downwards, but always disappears on the third day, while
that of measles is not entirely gone before the eighth or ninth. The
rash itself also has a different character. It consists of small,
slightly elevated, round red spots which now and then coalesce into
small patches, but never have the somewhat crescentic arrangement
observed in the rash of measles. The colour of the spots is somewhat
darker than that of the eruption of measles, while the _skin between
them remains pale_, and does not assume the flush of measles. As it
disappears it simply fades, and does not at all change its tint as that
of measles does, and it leaves the skin unroughened.

Now and then German measles are severe, and are attended with a good
deal of fever for a day or two, and even with symptoms of bronchitis.
These cases are, however, very unusual, are seen only at times when the
disease prevails epidemically; and even then the symptoms of the
affection are sufficiently marked to preserve from error all but those
who wish to be deceived, and to flatter themselves that their child is
henceforth protected from scarlatina.

=Scarlatina=, or =Scarlet Fever=, for the two names mean the same thing,
the former being only the Latin term, and not implying any greater
mildness of the disease, is one of the most formidable ailments of
childhood, and especially of early childhood, since the highest
mortality from it takes place during the third year of life.

It is more dreaded in a household, and justly so, than any other
disease of childhood, though, indeed, it is not limited in its
occurrence to early life, and instances are familiar to us all in which
the mother, devoting herself to the care of her little ones, has herself
fallen a victim to the poison.

I do not think it so directly contagious, from person to person, as
small-pox, chicken-pox, or measles, but its infection appears to be
specially abiding in its character, and to cling longer to the clothes,
the bedding, and even the room of a scarlet fever patient, than that of
the