od, and some mild nerve depressant is all that
can be done. The disease is very contagious and is usually transmitted
directly from the sick person to the well person. It may, however, be
carried in clothing, particularly in handkerchiefs and towels. Like
measles, if it gains a foothold in an uncivilized community, it attains
the size of an epidemic or plague with very fatal results. It seems to
have a great power over girls and children, particularly those whose
vitality is below the normal. Like measles, one does not generally have
two attacks of this disease. In the winter, and this is the time when
the whooping cough is most common, it is often followed by lung
troubles, such as bronchitis and pneumonia. The death-rate from whooping
cough is as large as from scarlet fever and measles combined, but
chiefly because the disease is common among the smallest children. It is
not unusual for babies under a year old to have whooping cough, and when
their vitality is low, they scarcely ever recover.

_Precautions against spread of whooping cough._

Probably the disease does not become contagious until the cough starts,
and there is no reason why the disease should not be arrested in the
first victim, provided proper isolation is practiced. The idea of a
child with whooping cough, even when he whoops only once or twice a day,
being allowed to attend school and mingle with the other scholars and to
distribute the disease among them seems in these days of sanitary
knowledge almost criminal. As soon as the first whoop occurs the child
should be put in a room by himself and kept there until the last whoop
has been whooped, and no other child should be allowed to go into the
room, and the nurse or mother who is in charge should be careful about
contact with other children after coming from the sick room until she
has changed her outer garment. A big apron with long sleeves, fitted
closely around the neck, which may be slipped on and off easily, is an
admirable protection. The same precautions about disinfecting dishes,
napkins, towels, handkerchiefs, and bedding should be observed here as
already referred to.

_Chicken pox._

Chicken pox is the mildest of eruptive diseases. It has no relation to
smallpox, so that the theory sometimes held, that an attack of chicken
pox prevents any attack of smallpox later, is a mistake. Instances are
on record where a person has had both diseases almost at the same time.
The appearance of the