â

182 ERYSIPELAS, OR ST. ANTHONY'S FIRE.

is a violent pain in the arm-pit on the side affected, where an ab-cess is often formed.

If in a day or two the swelling subsides, the heat and pain abate,the colour and part turns yellow, and the cuticle breaks and fallsoff in scales, the danger is over.

The event of this disease depends greatly upon the constitutionof the patient. It is seldom dangerous ; but when the constitutionis bad, the legs will sometimes swell to a prodigious size, and thecure prove extremely difficult. It has often proved fatal to peo-ple in the decline of life, who were of a scorbutic habit, or whosehumours were vitiated by irregular living, or unwholesome diet.

When the erysipelas is large, deep, and affects a very sensiblepart of the body, the danger is great. If the red colour changesinto a livid or black, it will end in a mortification. Sometimes theinflammation cannot be discussed, but comes to a suppuration ; inwhich case fistula;, a gangrene, or mortification, often ensue.

Such as die of this disease are commonly carried off by the fe-ver, which is attended with difficulty of breathing, and sometimeswith a delirium and great drowsiness. They generally die aboutthe seventh or eighth day.

Regimen. — In the erysipelas the patient must neither be kept toohot nor too cold, as either of these extremes will tend to make itretreat, which is always to be guarded against. When the diseaseis mild, it will be sufficient to keep the patient within doors, with-out confining him to his bed, and to promote the perspiration bydiluting liquors, «fee.

The diet ought to be slender, and of a moderately cooling andmoistening quality, as groat-gruel, panado, chicken or barley-broth,with cooling herbs and fruits, «fee, avoiding flesh, fish, strong drink,spices, pickles, and all other things that may heat and inflame theblood : the drink may be barley-water, and infusion of elder-flow-ers, common whey, and such like.

But if the pulse be low, and the spirits sunk, the patient mustbe supported with negus, and other things of a cordial nature. Hisfood may be sago-gruel, with a little wine, and nourishing broths,taken in small quantities, and often repeated. Great care, howev-er, must be taken not to overheat him.

Medical treatment. — The treatment of idiopathic* erysipelasvaries according to the causes, symptoms, complications, and ano-malies of the disease, and may be divided into internal and exter-nal. That the mode of relief must be very different in phlegmo-nous erysipelas from what it is in other varieties of this disorder,must be plain to every one who has the least knowledge of diseasesin general.

" Common cases of acute, or phlegmonous, erysipelas, yield tomild purgatives, and a light vegetable diet, with which remediespractitioners usually conjoin diaphoretics and the saline mixture.Whether bleeding- is right, or not, in this species of erysipelas, is

* A primary disease, arising spontaneously, and not as a symptom of any other, whenit would be termed symptomatic erysipelas.