TREATMENT OF SCARLET FEVER.

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 8274, 3 January 1888, Page 7

TREATMENT OF SCARLET FEVER.

It would to interesting if a census were to be taken with a view to a“certaiu what treatment of scarlet fever was most in vogue among practitioners to day. We suspect that not an inconsiderable portion of this vote wonid fall to the lot of expectancy, by which must be understood the absence of any attempt to arrest the course of the ■malady, combined with great watchfulnos; of the symptoms and the treatment of the most dangerous of these morbid phenomena. The present epidemic is, for the most part, of a mild nature, but considerable attention has to be given to the threat, which seems to suffer in a marked degree, the glandular ■ swelling being correspondingly marked. Hence it will be found that gargles of all kinds, and especially those of an antiseptic nature, are freely used, together with compresses of various degrees of heat and moisture applied to tho neck. Most practitioners, even those of the most expectant • schools, employ topical applications to the throat and nose. Many articles arc used to relieve the thirst and sensation of dryness, but nothing is more effective than ice and a little raspberry vinegar. It is important to keep the nostrils and nasal passages sweet and clean. For cerebral symptoms nothing is better than the application of cold, either in the mild form of lint soaked in ice-water and applied to the shaven head, or in the more effeotive capilline tubes, with irrigation. Compression of the carotid arteries and bleeding are seldom practised nowadays, ■either in scarlet or any other fever. Aconite in minute doses, frequently repeated, is still the favorite drug of many practitioners, but its employment needs the exercise of clinical discretion, especially in children. Actual bathing in cold or tepid water is practised by but few physicians, though the number of practitioners who recommend tho use of cold or tepid sponging, the patient lying in bed on a mackintosh, appears to be largely on the increase. Most of the alleged specific and curative agents have long since lapsed into discredit. Belladonna finds but few adherents, and carbonate of ammonia almost none. Considerable difference of opinion exists on the merits of inunction w ; th fat, cold cream and the like, two of the most recent authors on the diseases of children taking opposite views; Dr Goodhart advocating and Dr Angel Money opposing the universal inunction, though tho latter sees no objection to relieving the tension of the palms and soles by the application of geoline or vaseline scented with eucalyptol. - The Lancet