MEASLES (1Iforbilli, Rubeola) is the popular name of a contagious disease, characterised by an eruption on the skin, and affecting chiefly children.
The etymology of the word measles is uncertain, but its application to the disease we are treating of was probably borrowed from an appear ance so denominated in pork, to which the eruption bears resemblance. Measles is ushered in by more or less fever, a running from the nostrils and eyes, with some inflanunation of the latter, sneezing, hoarseness, a dry cough, difficulty of respiration, and occasionally slight soreness of the throat. From four to six days after the commencement of these symptoms a rash begins to appear, which first shows itself in distinct, red, and nearly circular spots, having some resemblance to flea-bites : these spots gradually coalesce and form small slightly elevated patches of an irregular figure, but approaching nearest to that of semicircles or crescents. The patches first show themselves on the forehead and face, and gradually extend downwards to the trunk and extremities At the commencement of the eruption the catarrhal symptoms and fever are somewhat augmented, and during its height the whole face is often swollen and the eyelids thereby closed ; on its decline, which begins on the fourth or fifth day, the fever ceases, and from those parts of the body previously covered by eruption the cuticle separates in small bran-like scales. A diarrhoea now commonly supervenes, and affords relief to the other symptoms. This, however, is the period when the danger, which is a consequence rather than a concomitant of measles, commences. The cough, which has continued throughout the active period of the disease, now assumes a more serious character ; the expectoration, which hitherto has been simply mucus, indicative of the inflammation being confined to the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes, becomes bloody, or mixed with pus, showing either that inflam mation has attacked the proper substance of the lungs, or that tuber culous deposits have taken place in these organs, constituting pulmonary consumption. If the patient happily escape these dangers, others, less fatal indeed, but scarcely less to be dreaded, not unfrequently show themselves, among the most severe of which are obstinate ophthalmia and inflammation of the internal parts of the ear, the former not unfrequently terminating in partial or total loss of vision, and the latter in deafness. It must be confessed, however, that this is a pic ture rather of what may and occasionally does happen than of what takes place in the majority of instances ; such severe terminations of the disorder are confined chiefly to the ill-fed and ill-clad children of the poor, and to the more sickly ones of the opulent.
Measles frequently occurs as an epidemic, in this country usually at the beginning of spring. These epidemics vary considerably in character, being sometimes benign, at other times very fatal, and occasionally they are observed to prevail in conjunction with smallpox; like the latter disease, measles rarely attacks the same individual twice. Experiments have been made to determine how far inoculation with the blood of the parts on which the eruption appeared might succeed in moderating the violence of the disease thus artificially produced ; but the cases in which it was tried were not sufficiently satisfactory to warrant its general adoption. Measles, before the outbreak of the rash, may be mistaken for severe catarrh ; the eruption itself is liable to be con founded with that of roseola, scarlatina, strophulus, lichen, urticaria, incipient small-pox, &c.; but the crescentic shape of the patches and the catarrhal character of the other symptoms can hardly fail to remove any doubt as to the nature of the disease.
With respect to the treatment, little is 'required during the eruptive stage of the disorder, which is seldom attended with danger. It is chiefly necessary to open the bowels, to confine the patient to a light vegetable diet, with cold acidulated aqueous drinks, and to maintain a cool temperature in the room, which should be moderately darkened. Where the skin is dry and hot, sponging it with cold water has been recommended and practised with benefit. The old practice of confining the patient in heated chambers, and covered with an overwhelming quantity of bed-clothes, is now justly abandoned : the free use of the lancet during the eruptive period of the disease is likewise laid aside, and its employment restricted to those cases in which any of the vital or important organs are threatened or attacked by inflammation. Cases in which the vital powers, are low, to which the name rubeola putrida has been applied, of course will require an opposite mode of treatment, as the exhibition of bark, the mineral acids, and wine, together with a nutritious diet and a pure atmosphere : these, too, are the remedies which prove most serviceable in checking the diarrhcca, if injuriously protracted.