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OF THE SMALL-POX.

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the natural heat of the nurse cannot fail to augment the fevtr of thf-child ; but if she too proves feverish, which is often the case, thi»danger must be increased.

I have known a nurse, who had the small-pox before, so infectedby lying constantly in bed with a child in a bad kind of small-pox,that she had not only a great number of pustules, which broke outall over her body, but afterwards a malignant fever, which terminat-ed in a number of impostumes or biles, and from which she narrowlyescaped with her life. We mention this, to put others upon theirguard against the danger of this virulent infection.

Laying several children who have the small-pox, in the same bed,has many ill consequences. They ought, if possible, never to be inthe same chamber, as the perspiration, the heat, the smell, &c. alltend to augment the fever, and to heighten the disease. It is com-mon among the poor, to see two or three children lying in the samebed, with such a load of pustules, that even their skins stick toge-ther. One can hardly view a scene of this kind without being sick-ened by the sight. But how must the effluvia affect the poor pa-tients, many of whom perish by this usage !!

This observation is likewise applicable rohospitals, work-houses,&c.where numbers of children happen to have the small-pox at the sametime. I have seen above forty children cooped up in one apartment allthe while.they had the disease, without any of them being admitted tobreath the fresh air. No one can be at a loss to see the improprietyof such conduct. It ought to be a rule, not only in hospitals for thesmall-pox, but likewise for other diseases. This is a matter to whichtoo little regard is paid. In most hospitals and infirmaries, the sick,the dying, and the dead, are often to be seen in the same apartment.

A very dirty custom prevails among the lower class of people, ofallowing children in the small-pox, to keep on the same linen duringthe whole period of that loathsome disease. This is done lest theyshould catch cold; but it has many ill consequences. The linen be-comes hard by the moisture which it absorbs, and frets the tenderskin. It likewise occasions a bad smell, which is very pernicious, bothto the patient and those around him; besides the fifth and soreswhich adhere to the linen being resorbed.or taken up again into thebody, greatly augment the disease.

A patient should not be suffered to be dirty in an internal disease,far less in the small-pox. Cutaneous disorders are often occasionedby ndstiness alone, and are always increased by it. Were the pa-tient's linen to be changed every day, it would greatly refresh him.Care indeed is to be taken that it be thoroughly dry. It ought like-wise to be put on when the patient is most cool.

So strong is the vulgar prejudice in this country, notwithstanding allthat has oeen said against the hot regimen in the small-pox, that num-bers still fall a sacrifice to that error. I have seen poor women traveiling in the depth of winter, and carrying their children alongwiththem in the small-pox, and have frequently observed others beggingby the way-side; with infants in their arms covered with the pus-tules ; yet I could never learn that one of these children died by this