CHAPTER II
THE POXES' AND MEASLES

I must first discuss those contagious fevers which, though
contagious, are yet not called 'pestilent', because, in the major—
ity of cases, they are salutary. Of this sort seem to be the
fevers which the translators of Arab books? call 'variolae' and
(morbilli. By the term 'variolae!, they mean fevers which
people commonly call 'varolae!, I suppose because of the re—
semblance of the eruption to the pustules called 'vari'; and
they mean by 'morbilli': what people call fersae',3 perhaps be—
cause of its fervid heat. The Greeks, however, in discussing
these fevers, used only the term exanthemata,? a word which is
employed with various meanings in their writings.

Fevers of this sort attack children especially, adults rarely,
old men hardly ever.  But they seem to attack everyone once
in his life,* or to be apt to attack, unless one escape them by
premature death. 'Their presence is hard to diagnose, until
the pustules themselves betray the malady. 'There are, how—
ever, certain signs which precede the pustules, and from these
signs one may suspect that a fever of this sort is coming on.  In
the first place, when you observe that this sort of fever is wide—
spread among the people, and then a child has a fever, you may
suspect that he is affected by that common malady; but that
is not necessarily so, hence you must look out for other indica—
tions; you must find out whether he has associated with some
person who is infected; whether his eyes are too bright, his
back feels as though it were broken, his face is flushed; whether
the fever is persistent, and whether it is stupefying rather than
exciting; for these are the symptoms that appear first. Then
ask whether the patient has previous!ly suffered from a fever of
the kind that is regularly accompanied by that sort of exan—
themata; for it seldom happens that a person who has once had
that infection suffers from it a second time. 'Then observe
whether nature is thrusting something up to the outer skin,
for usually, about the fourth day or a little later, there first

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