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of bed isolation is, however, certainly useful even in this instance,
and I have some grounds for declaring that the spread of this
disease can be checked if, in addition to the most rigorous bed
isolation, general inunction with oil of eucalyptus is practised
from the first. This plan has also been tried with great success by me
in private practice. The treatment of scarlet fever by inunction
is, however, quite another matter, and I have elsewhere given some
reasons for not assenting to the claims of its advocates. It should
not be forgotten, too, that Dr. Milne insists that, in addition to
inunction, cases of scarlet fever should be subjected to throat
swabbing with carbolic oil. It appears to me, moreover,
that such success as this practice of inunction has apparently met
with has been in cases of what I have called " recessive infection,"
and I believe that in these cases the infective potency is very
much less than in the initial, or "intensive" cases of an outbreak,
or series of cases. We had during the year, I may mention,
under our notice, one very clear instance in which a child, treated
at home by inunction, apparently infected another with quite serious
consequences.
That inunction in scarlet fever may have some uses I do not
deny, but that it will ever be a satisfactory substitute for isolation
I hesitate even for one moment to consider likely. I would repeat
what I have said in another place:—if the method has the value
that its supporters declare, let it be shewn that its practice will
check outbreaks. To shew that when inunction is practised after
an outbreak has become well established the outbreak nevertheless
comes to an end, proves nothing. Outbreaks always do come to
an apparent end, from attenuation of the poison. Under a satisfactory
system outbreaks should not occur.
I ought to mention how greatly I have been indebted to Miss
Bellinger, the Matron of the Hospital, for her scrupulous care in
carrying out the prescribed details of our practice at Mortlake, and