Treatment of the disease, until the physician arrives, consists in rest in bed, moderate darkening of the room (which must be heated to 59° F. and frequently ventilated), and the administration of liquid food. Further measures which may be required in order to prevent or to alleviate com plications that may have arisen are the concern of the physician. Whatever he prescribes should be conscientiously carried out. There exists, unfortu nately, a foolish belief among many people that children affected by measles must not be washed. The fear that washing the child may cause the eruption to be " driven inward " is without foundation. The insufficient development of the eruption, to which the term " driven inward " has been applied, is not a consequence of washing, but of a supervening affection of the respiratory passages (pneumonia, for instance), which impairs the blood-circulation in the skin. This either causes the spots to fade, rendering them less distinct ; or it prevents part of the virus from reaching the surface, thus making the eruption less extensive. Since measles may be a very dangerous disease, a physician should always be consulted at the onset.
MEAT.—In the development of the human race the hunter preceded the tiller of the soil ; and, although meat does not have first place quantitatively in the customary fare of to-day, it plays a principal part in the nutrition of the human body, and will always continue to do so, as it is pre-eminently the source of vital energy and productive labour. Proteids, fats, lime-salts, and other salts are the chief nutritive elements in meat. Bones and cartilages, with their large percentage of lime, are digested only by dogs and by beasts of prey ; hut man ingests lime-salts in the jelly of congealed gravies and soups. Another main source of lime is the connective-tissue which surrounds and permeates the red meat (muscles) of animals. This connective-tissue, therefore, becomes a valuable nutritive substance to man. Certainly it cannot replace albumin ; but, like the carbohydrates, it serves as an economiser of albumin.
Albumin is contained almost exclusively in the muscles. These may be considered as consisting of millions of the finest tubules, filled with albumin, and connected 1w lime-containing connective tissue, in combination with which they represent the meat as sold in the market. The tubules also contain connective tissue, and albumin can, therefore, be discharged from them only when they are open. The connective. tissue is frequently inter spersed with fat, which is found also independently in large accumulations, as, for instance, under the skin of the abdomen, and in the neighbourhood of the kidneys. intestines, etc. Fat is of great importance to the human organism as a producer of heat and energy. Nevertheless, lean meat is preferable to that which contains much fat, owing to the larger amount of proteids of the former, and to its large percentage of tissue-salts, which are entirely absent from fat. Examination of the ashes of meat have disclosed that they contain
potassium salts, phosphorus, iron, sulphur combinations, sodium salts, etc. leat is, therefore, one of the most favourable natural combinations of foodstuffs. as it is able to satisfy various requirements of the body. Albumin is present also in cereals and in legumes ; while cheese, which is a much cheaper foodstuff than meat, is likewise rich in animal proteids which the body is able to utilise to much greater advantage than vegetable albumin ; hut in none of these substances is the nutritive principle present in so digestible a form as in meat, and nowhere is it supplemented in an equal manner by the presence of salts.
The nutritive value of different meats varies considerably. The flesh of mammals shows a composition different from that of birds and fish ; and a more detailed consideration of mammals shows essential differences in the value of the meat of different animals of the same species—in fact, of meat from the different parts of time same animal. Age, work, sex, and nutrition have a determining influence upon the composition of the meat ; and the flesh of the young animal, with its abundance of water and lime-substances, is in contrast to that of the old animal, with its hard, tough meat, rich in salts. In general, it may be said that the best meat is that of full-grown, recently matured animals, which have been sufficiently fed, are not too fat, and have not been exhausted by work. The meat of those parts of the body which have been freely exercised during life is usually most palatable. Hence, loins, flanks, and back are preferred in most animals. Red meats are somewhat richer in extractive substances than the white meats. This is due to the fact that the former contain a greater amount of blood. In like manner is also the meat of birds distinguished from that of mammals. The flesh of fish, like that of calves, contains large quantities of water and lime-salts ; they are rich in albumin, however, and must, by no means, he designated as of inferior value. The flesh of calves, which were at least six to eight weeks old when slaughtered, and u hick had been sufficiently fat tened, is by no means an inferior meat The meat of an animal killed \Allen only a few days old is worthless ; and a sensible housewife should such meat on a par with unripe fruit, and never attempt to use it as a substitute for other meat. No meat should be used immediately after the animal has been killed ; but, according to the season, it should be from one to several days old, as otherwise even the best meat is tough and not quite fit to eat.