SMALL DEBTS is a phrase current in Scotland to denote debts under £12, rectivera ble in the sheriff court. See SHERIFF. In England the same debts are recoverable in the county court (q.v.).
or VARIOLA, is one of the most formidable of the class of febrile diseases known as the exanthemata (q.v ). All cases of regular small-pox are divisible into three stages—viz.: (1), that of the initial or eruptive fever; (2), that of the progress and matur ation of the specific eruption; and (3) that of the decline. Sonic writers make a primary stage of the period of incubation, or of the time intervening between the reception of the poison into the system, and the first appearance of febrile symptoms; but this is not entitled to be regarded as a stage of the disease, seeing that no symptoms of disorder have begun to show themselves. 1 he first stage begins with rigors, followed by heat and dry ness of the skin, a quickened pulse, furred tongue, loss of appetite, pain in the pit of the stomach, Ninth nausea, vomiting, headache, and often pains in the back and limbs. The violence of the pains back, and the obstinacy of the vomiting, are frequently very well marked and characteristic symptoms. In children, the disease is often ushered . in by convulsions; while delirium sometimes attends its outset in adults. On the third day, minute red specks begin to come out first on the face, then on the neck and wrists, and on the trunk of the body, and lastly, on the lower extremities. The fever usually begins to subside as soon as the eruption appears, and by the beginning of the fifth day, when the eruption is generally completed, the fever has entirely disappeared. The second stage commences when the eruption is fully out. Upon the second or third day of the eruption, a little clear lymph is seen in each pimple, which has increased consid. erably in size since its first appearance, and which is thus converted into a vesicle. The resides gradually increase in breadth, and become converted into pustules, which are at first depressed in the center, but by the fifth day of the eruption become turgid and hemispherical; the suppuration on the face being complete by about the eighth day from the commencement of the fever, and the same process rapidly following in the other parts of the body in the same order of succession as that in which the eruption originally appeared. The pustules then break, and scabs or crusts form over them, which usually fall off after four or five days' existence. The number of pustules in any special case and the severity of the disease, stand in a direct ratio to one another; for "the number , A of pustules indicates, in the first place, the quantity of the variolous poison which haw been reproduced in the blood; and, in the second place, it is also a direct measure of the extent to which the skin suffers inflammation. Sometimes there are not more than half a-dozen pustules; sometimes there are many thousands. If all these were collected into cue, it would be an enormous,phlegmon. For both these reasons, the system suffers commotion, distress, and peril, in proportion to the quantity of the eruption."—Watson's Lectures, etc., 4th ed. vol. ii. p. 837. Tho progress of the pustules is usually accom panied with swelling of the skin of the face, with a painful sensation of heat and tension; the scalp is often swollen; soreness of the mouth and salivation usually supervene; and the patient exhales a peculiar and disagreeable odor. About the eighth or ninth day of
the disease, a recurrence of the fever, known as " the fever of maturation," sets in with varying degrees of intensity, according to the number and arrangement of the pustules., When the pustules, are numerous, they run together; when they are few, they separate. Hence the division of small-pox into the two great varieties of distinct and confluent, or variola discreta and variola confluens; and this division is of the highest importance, because the distinct form of the disease, in which the pustules are isolated, is scarcely ever dangerous; while the confluent form, in which they coalesce, is never free from danger. The third or declining stage is, in the distinct variety, little more than a period of convalescence. About the eleventh or twelfth day, the pustules on the face become,brown and dry at the top, or some of them break, and the fluid which oozes out solidifies into a yellowing crust; and from this time the process of desiccation goes on, the swelling of the face subsides, and at last only dry scabs remain, which gradually fall off about the fourteenth day. It is not till three or four days after the scabs have formed on the face, that the same process is completed over the whole body. The scabs are usually completely gone by the twenty-first day, leaving behind them blotches of a reddish brown color, which sometimes continue for some months before they quite disappear; and some of the pustules, in consequence of ulceration of the true skin, leave pits, especially on the face, which remain permanently. The period of scabbing is accompanied by various symptoms of improvement: the tongue becomes clean, the appetite returns, and by the time that the scabs have fallen off, the patient may be regarded as restored to health; so that the entire course of a case of distinct or discrete small-pox occupies about three weeks. In the confluent form of the disease, the eruptive fever is more violent, the pain in the back is more severe, and the sickness more obstinate, and the eruption comes out earlier and less regularly than in the distinct variety which we selected for description as representing the more natural course of the disease. Moreover, the pustules do not fill so completely, nor are they of the normal yellow purulent hue, being whitish, brown, or even purple. But the most important difference between the two forms is iu the second ary fever, which sets in when the pustules are mature. This fever, which is slightly marked in distinct small-pox, is usually intense, and highly dangerous in the confluent form; and it is at this period of the disease that death most commonly occurs. Statistics rhow,that the eighth day of the eruption is the most perilous day, and the second week the most perilous week. The early occurrence of death—that is to say, during the first week—denotes a peculiar malignancy in the disease. " The nervous system," says Dr. Watson, "appears to be overwhelmed by the force of the poison. During the second week, the disorder proves fatal chiefly in the way of apnoea; from some affection of the respiratory passages. After that period, the characters of asthenia commonly predoati the patient sinks under some casual complication, or the powers of life are grade. ally worn out by so much irritation of the surface, and so large an amount of suppura tion."—Op. eft., vol. ii. p. 860.