others at a time when, as will be afterwards seen, the contagion
of the disease is most active. In rare cases, especially in young
children, convulsions usher in, or occur in the course of, this
stage of invasion, which lasts as a rule for four or five days, the
febrile symptoms, however, showing some tendency to undergo
abatement after the second day. On the fourth or fifth day
after the invasion, sometimes later, rarely earlier, the characteristic
eruption appears on the skin, being first noticed on the
brow, cheeks, chin, also behind the ears, and on the neck. It
consists of small spots of a dusky red or crimson colour, just like
flea-bites, slightly elevated above the surface, at first isolated,
but tending to become grouped into patches of irregular, occasionally
crescentic, outline, with portions of skin free from the
eruption intervening. The face acquires a swollen and bloated
appearance, which, taken with the catarrh of the nostrils and
eyes, is almost characteristic, and renders the diagnosis at this
stage a matter of no difficulty. The eruption spreads downwards
over the body and limbs, which are soon thickly studded with
the red spots or patches. Sometimes these become confluent
over a considerable surface. The rash continues to come out
for two or three days, and then begins to fade in the order in
which it first showed itself, namely from above downwards. By
the end of about a week after its first appearance scarcely any
trace of the eruption remains beyond a faint staining of the skin.
Usually during convalescence slight peeling of the epidermis
takes place, but much less distinctly than is the case in scarlet
fever. At the commencement of the eruptive stage the fever,
catarrh, and other constitutional disturbance, which were
present from the beginning, become aggravated, the temperature
often rising to 105° or more, and there is headache, thirst, furred
tongue, and soreness of the throat, upon which red patches
similar to those on the surface of the body may be observed.
These symptoms usually decline as soon as the rash has attained
its maximum, and often there occurs a sudden and extensive
fall of temperature, indicating that the crisis of the disease has
been reached. In favourable cases convalescence proceeds
rapidly, the patient feeling perfectly well even before the rash
has faded from the skin.
Measles may, however, occur in a very malignant form, in which the symptoms throughout are of urgent character, the rash but feebly developed, and of dark purple hue, while there is great prostration, accompanied with intense catarrh of the respiratory or gastro-intestinal mucous membrane. Such cases are rare, occurring mostly in circumstances of bad hygiene, both as regards the individual and his surroundings. On the other hand, cases of measles are often of so mild a form throughout that the patient can scarcely be persuaded to submit to treatment.
Measles as a disease derives its chief importance from the risk, by no means slight, of certain complications which are apt to arise during its course, more especially inflammatory affections of the respiratory organs. These are most liable to occur in the colder seasons of the year and in very young and delicate children. It has been already stated that irritation of the respiratory passages is one of the symptoms characteristic of measles, but that this subsides with the decline of the eruption. Not unfrequently, however, these symptoms, instead of abating, become aggravated, and bronchitis of the capillary form (see Bronchitis), or pneumonia, generally of the diffuse or lobular variety (see Pneumonia), supervene. By far the greater proportion of the mortality in measles is due to its complications, of which those just mentioned are the most common, but which also include inflammatory affections of the larynx, with attacks resembling croup, and also diarrhoea assuming a dysenteric character. Or there may remain as direct results of the disease chronic ophthalmia, or discharge from the ears with deafness, and occasionally a form of gangrene affecting the tissues of the mouth or cheeks and other parts of the body, leading to disfigurement and gravely endangering life.
Apart from those immediate risks there appears to be a tendency in many cases for the disease to leave behind a weakened and vulnerable condition of the general health, which may render children, previously robust, delicate and liable to chest complaints, and is in not a few instances the precursor of some of those tubercular affections to which the period of childhood and youth is liable. These various effects or sequelae of measles indicate that although in itself a comparatively mild ailment, it should not be regarded with indifference. Indeed it is doubtful whether any other disease of early life demands more careful watching as to its influence on the health. Happily many of those attending evils may by proper management be averted.
Measles is a disease of the earlier years of childhood. Like other infectious maladies, it is admittedly rare, though not unknown, in nurslings or infants under six months old. It is comparatively seldom met with in adults, but this is due to the fact that most persons have undergone an attack in early life. Where this has not been the case, the old suffer equally with the young. All races of men appear liable to this disease, provided that which constitutes the essential factor in its origin and spread exists, namely, contagion. Some countries enjoy long immunity from outbreaks of measles, but it has frequently been found in such cases that when the contagion has once been introduced the disease extends with great rapidity and virulence. This was shown by the epidemic in the Faroe Islands in 1846, where, within six months after the arrival of a single case of measles, more than three-fourths of the entire population were attacked and many perished; and the similarly produced and still more destructive outbreak in Fiji in 1875, in which it was estimated that about one-fourth of the inhabitants died from the disease in about three months. In both these cases the great mortality was due to the complications of the malady, specially induced by overcrowding, insanitary surroundings, the absence of proper nourishment and nursing for the sick, and the utter prostration and terror of the people, and to the disease being specially malignant, occurring on what might be termed virgin soil.[1] It may be regarded as an invariable rule that the first epidemic of any disease in a community is specially virulent, each successive attack conferring a certain immunity.
In many lands, such as the United Kingdom, measles is rarely absent, especially from large centres of population, where sporadic cases are found at all seasons. Every now and then epidemics arise from the extension of the disease among those members of a community who have not been in some measure protected by a previous attack. There are few diseases so contagious as measles, and its rapid spread in epidemic outbreaks is no doubt due to the well-ascertained fact that contagion is most potent in the earlier stages, even before its real nature has been evinced by the characteristic appearances on the skin. Hence the difficulty of timely isolation, and the readiness with which the disease is spread in schools and families. The contagion is present in the skin and the various secretions. While the contagion is generally direct, it can also be conveyed by the particles from the nose and mouth which, after being expelled, become dry and are conveyed as dust on clothes, toys, &c. Fortunately the germs of measles do not retain their virulence long under such conditions, comparing favourably with those of some other diseases.
Treatment.—The treatment embraces the preventive measures to be adopted by the isolation of the sick at as early a period as possible. Epidemics have often, especially in limited localities, been curtailed by such a precaution. In families with little house accommodation this measure is frequently, for the reason given regarding the communicable period of the disease, ineffectual; nevertheless where practicable it ought to be tried. The unaffected children should be kept from school for a time (probably about three weeks from the outbreak in the family would suffice if no other case occur in the interval), and all clothing in contact with the patient or nurses should be disinfected. In extensive epidemics it is often desirable to close the schools for a time. As regards special treatment, in an ordinary case of measles little is required beyond what is necessary in febrile conditions generally. Confinement to bed in a somewhat darkened room, into which, however, air is freely
- ↑ Transactions of the Epidemiological Society (London, 1877).
