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400 more. Where it occurs it is easily prevented
spreading, and the only necessity is the carrying
out certain acknowledged principles of action.
With a view to instructing the public on this
subject, I requested that I might be allowed to
circulate the following directions in the Parish:—
On the Nature of Scaelet Feyee, and the Best Means
of Preventing it.
Scarlet Fever is a highly contagious disease, and spreads
from one person to another, and is thus propagated in families,
towns, and districts. It is therefore, highly desirable that
every one should understand the nature of this disease, and the
means of preventing its spreading. It is always attended with
a scarlet eruption on the skin, and is mostly accompanied by a
sore throat. Whenever children have sore throats, or an
eruption on the skin, they should be separated from the rest of
the family until a doctor has seen them, or these symptoms have
disappeared.
There is every reason to believe that, during the progress of
this disease, not only the eruption of the skin, but everything
that is thrown off from the body of the infected person is
heavily laden with the germs or seeds which are capable of
propagating the disease in another person. The discharges from
the nose and throat are especially virulent. There is also reason
to believe that the discharges from the bowls are the same.
The kidneys are frequently dangerously diseased in Scarlet
Fever, and the secretion from these organs is also probably
highly contagious; the power of spreading the poison by means
of these secretions is not confined to their immediately leaving
the body, but continues long after. It is on this account that
when theso secretions have found their way to the cesspool and
sewer, they may still give off poison to the surrounding air, and