OF THE MILIARY FEVER.

119

most the whole of their time. But among women who are active andlaborious, who live in the country, and take sufficient exercise witho.t doors, this disease is very little known.

SYMPTOMS.-------When this is a primary disease, it makes its

attack, like most other eruptive fevers, with a slight shivering, whichis succeeded by heat, loss of strength, faintishness, sighing, a lowquick pulse, difficulty of breathing, with great anxiety and oppres-sion of the breast. The patient is restless, and sometimes delirious ,the tongue appears white, and the hands shake, with often a burningheat in the palms; and in child-bed-women, the milk generally goesaway, and the other discharges stop

The patient feels an itching.or pricKing pain under the skin; afterwhich innumerable small pustules of a red or white colour begin toappear. Upon this the symptoms generally abate, the pulse becomesmore full and soft, the skin grows moister, and the sweat, as the dis-ease advances, begins to have a peculiar foetid smell; the great loadon the breast, and oppression of the spirits, generally go off, and thecustomary evacuations gradually return. About the sixth or seventhday from the eruption, the pustules begin to dry and fall off, whichoccasions a very disagreeable itching in the skin.

It is impossible to ascertain the exact time when the pustules willeither appear or go off. They generally come out oj the third orfourth day, when the eruption is critical; but when symtomatical,i hey may appear at any time of the disease.

Sometimes the pustules appear and vanish by turns. When that isthe case, there is always danger; but when they go in all of a sud-den, and do not appear again, the danger is very great.

In child-bed-women the pustules are commonly at first filled withclear water, afterwards they grow yellowish. Sometimes they areinterspersed with pustules of a red colour: when these only appear,the disease goes by the name of a rash.

REGIMEN.------In all eruptive fevers, of whatever kind, the chief

point is to prevent the sudden disappearing of the pustules, and topromote their maturation. For this purpose the patient must bekept in such a temperature, as neither to push out the eruption toofast, nor to cause it to retreat prematurely. The diet and drinkought, therefore, to be in a moderate degree nourishing and cordial;but neither strong nor heating. The patient's chamber ought nei-ther to be kept too hot nor cold; and he should not be too muchcovered with clothes. Above all, the mind is to be kept easy audcheerful. Nothing so certainly makes an eruption go in as fear, orthe apprehension of danger.

The food must be weak chicken-broth, with bread, panado, sago,or groat-gruel, &c. to a gill of which may be added a spoonful ortwo of wine, as the patient's strength requires, w'*' 1 a few grains ofsalt and a little sugar. Good apples roasted or boiled, with otherripe fruits of an opening cooling nature, may be eaten.

The drink may be suited to the state of the patient's strength and

spirits. If these be pretty high, the drink ought to be weak; as wa-

er-gruel balm tea. or the following decoction; 'Puke fcro ouneesof