214. What is the difference between Scarlatina and Scarlet Fever?
They are, indeed, one and the same disease, scarlatina being the Latin for scarlet fever. But, in a popular sense, when the disease is mild, it is usually called scarlatina. The latter term does not sound so formidable to the ears either of patients or of parents. 215. Will you describe the symptoms of Scarlet Fever?
The patient is generally chilly, languid, drowsy, feverish, and poorly for two days before the eruption appears. At the end of the second day, the characteristic, bright scarlet efflorescence, somewhat similar to the color of a boiled lobster, usually first shows itself. The scarlet appearance is not confined to the skin; but the tongue, the throat, and the whites of the eyes put on the same appearance; with this only difference, that on the tongue and on the throat the scarlet is much darker; and, as Dr. Elliotson accurately describes it,—"the tongue looks as if it had been slightly sprinkled with Cayenne pepper." The eruption usually declines on the fifth, and is generally indistinct on the sixth day; on the seventh it has completely faded away. There is usually, after the first few days, great itching on the surface of the body. The skin, at the end of the week, begins to peel and to dust off, making it look as though meal had been sprinkled upon it.
There are three forms of scarlet fever,—the one where the throat is little, if at all affected, and this is a mild form of the disease; the second, which is generally, especially at night, attended with delirium, where the throat is much affected, being often greatly inflamed and ulcerated; and the third (which is, except in certain unhealthy districts, comparatively rare, and which is VERY dangerous), the malignant form. 216. Would it be well to give a little cooling, opening physic as soon as a child begins to sicken for Scarlet Fever?
