MEASLES (known also as RUBEOLA and MORBILLI) is one of the group of blood-dis eases termed Exanthemata (q.v.), although, from the eruption which appears on the surface of the body, it is sometimes classed-with the skin-diseases. It is communicable from person to person, and seldom occurs more than once in the same individual. Its period of incubation—that is to say, the time that elapses between exposure to the con tagion and the first appearance of the febrile symptoms which precede the eruption—is usually about a fortnight;' then come ltissitude aud shivering, which are soon followed by heat of skin, increased rapidity of the pulse, loss of appetite, and thirst. The res piratory mucous membrane is also affected, and the symptoms are very much the same as those of a severe cold in the head, accompanied with a dry cough, a slight sore throat, and sometimes tiFlitness of the chest.
The eruption whidi is characteristic of the disease usually appears upon the fourth day from the commencement of the febrile symptoms and the catarrh—seldom earlier, but not unfrequently some days later. It is a rash, consisting at first of minute red papulm, which, as they multiply, coalesce into crescentic patches. It is two or three days in coming out, beginning on the face and neck, and gradually traveling down wards. The rash fades in the same order as it occurs; and as it begins to decline three days after its appearance, its whole duration is about a week. The red color gives way to a somewhat yellowish tint, and the cuticle crumbles away in a fine bran like powder; the process being often attended with considerable itching.
There are two important points in which it differs from small-pox (q.v.), with which in its early stage it may be confounded; these are-1. That the fever does not cease or even abate when the eruption appears, but sometimes increases in intensity; and (2), that the disease is not more severe or more dangerous because the eruption is plentiful or early. The character of the eruption, after the first day, will serve to remove all doubt regarding these two diseases; and the comparative prevalence of either disease in the neighborhood will materially assist in forming the diagnosis. It is distinguished
frOm scarlet fever (q.v.), or scarlatina, (1), by the presence at the outset of catarrhal symptoms, which do not occur in the latter disease, at any rate, prior to the eruption; (2), by the absence of the throat-affection, which always accompanies well-marked cases of scarlet fever; (3), by the character of the rash, which in measles is said to present somewhat the tint of the raspberry, and in scarlet fever, that of a boiled lobster; which in measles appears in crescentic patches, and in scarlet fever is universally diffused; which in measles usually appears on the fourth day, and in scarlet fever on the second day of the disease.
In ordinary uncomplicated measles, the prognosis is almost always favorable. The chief danger is from inflammation of some of the textures that compose the lungs; and in scrofulous children, it often leaves chronic pulmonary mischief behind it. No age is exempt from the disease, but it is much more common in childhood than subse quently-. The reason is probably that most persons httve it in early life, and arc thus protected from an attack at a later period.
In mild forms of the disease, nothing more is requisite than to keep the patient on a low diet, attend to the state of the bowels, and prevent exposure to cold, which is best accomplished by keeping him in bed with the ordinary warmth to-which he is accus tomed in health. If the chest symptoms become urgent, they must be treated according to their nature. Bronchitis (q.v.), sornetimes extending into pneumonia (q.v.), is most to be feared. If the eruption disappear prematurely, it may sometimes be brought back hy placing, the patient in a warm bath, In such cases, stimulants are often required, but must, of course, only be given by the advice of the physician. The patient must be carefully protected from exposure to cold for a week or two after the diSease has apparently disappeared, as the lungs and mucous coat of the bowels are for some time very susceptible to inflammatory attacks.