on of any
disease. We were absolutely blocked, for instance, by it in smallpox and
syphilis until we discovered that our nearest blood relatives, the ape
and the monkey, are susceptible to them; and then the _Cytoryctes
Variolae_ and the _Treponema pallida_ were discovered within
comparatively a few months. Some lucky day, perhaps, we may stumble on
the animal or bird which will take measles, scarlet fever, or
whooping-cough, and then we will soon find out all about them.

But, fortunately, our knowledge of these little diseases, like
Mercutio's wound, is "not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church
door; but 't is enough" for all practical purposes. The general plan of
treatment in all of them might be roughly summed up as, rest in bed in a
well-ventilated room; sponge-baths and packs for the fever; milk, eggs,
bread, and fruit diet, with plenty of cool water to drink, either plain,
or disguised as lemonade or "fizzy" mixtures; mild local antiseptic
washes for nose and throat, and mild internal antiseptics, with
laxatives, for the bowels and kidneys. There is no known drug which is
specific in any one of them, though their course may be made milder and
the patient more comfortable by the intelligent use of a variety of
remedies, which assist nature in her fight against the toxin. Not
knowing the precise cause, we have as yet no reliable antitoxin for any.

Now very briefly as to the earmarks of each particular member of this
children's group. It may be said in advance that the "openings" of all
of them (as chess-players call the first moves) are very much alike.
All of them are apt to begin with a little redness and itching of the
mucous membranes of the nose, the throat, and the eyes, with consequent
snuffling and blinking and complaints of sore throat. These are
followed, or in severe, swift cases may be preceded, by flushed cheeks,
complaints of headache or heaviness in the head, fever, sometimes rising
very quickly to from one hundred and four to one hundred and five
degrees, backache, pains in the limbs, and, in very severe cases,
vomiting. In fact, the symptoms are almost identical with those of an
attack of that commonest of all acute infections, a bad cold, and
probably for the same reason, namely, that the germs, whatever they may
be, attack and enter the system by way of the nose and throat.

One of the most difficult practical points about the beginning of this
group of diseases is to distinguish them f