e
number of deaths of the latter between five and nine years is so great
that the percentage of deaths under fifteen is the same in both cases.
The moral is plain, namely, that a child should be carefully protected
from infection by measles until he is five years old and from scarlet
fever until fifteen, if the danger to the child's life is to be reduced
to a minimum.

_After effects of scarlet fever and measles._

In themselves, these diseases may not be severe, children often having
mild attacks of scarlet fever, called scarletina, and apparently
suffering only from a cold, but exposure, by which a cold is developed
either during or after the disease, may lead to serious troubles.
Inflammation of the kidneys often occurs, which may develop into chronic
Bright's disease and ultimately cause death. Inflammation of the ear is
another incident of scarlet fever, in which abscesses are formed,
resulting not infrequently in permanent deafness.

The consequences of measles are not so serious usually, and a more
common after effect is trouble with the lungs or bronchial tubes.
Pneumonia, croup, and bronchitis very often follow measles, due, as
already indicated, to exposure before the body has regained its normal
condition. In both scarlet fever and measles the eyes are apt to be
affected, and it is very important in both diseases to keep the patient
in a darkened room and to forbid use of the eyes in reading or other
close work. On account of the complications following scarlet fever and
measles, as well as for their greater death-rate, these diseases are
more serious than the other two included in this discussion,--whooping
cough and chicken pox.

_Preliminary symptoms._

The beginning of each of these four diseases is much the same, and the
symptoms are likely to be mistaken for those of an ordinary cold. In all
of them, the first indication of illness is redness and itching on the
inside of the nose and throat with snuffling and discharging from both
eyes and nose. Sometimes the throat is affected, and the patient
complains of sore throat. Then the cheeks become flushed, headache may
follow, and fever begins, so that the patient is in a sort of stupor,
unwilling to do anything and glad to lie in bed. In severe cases
vomiting may accompany or precede the outbreak of fever.

At the outset, the probable reason for the similarity of these four
diseases as well as their likeness to a common cold is that the germs
respon