Measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever, chicken pox, and whooping cough by Weaver
Measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever, chicken pox, and whooping cough by Weaver is a concise public-health handbook from the early 20th century. It presents practical guidance on common childhood infections, focusing on what causes them and how to recognize, prevent, and treat them. The book begins with shared principles—germ causes, susceptibility and immunity, carriers, and the limits of quarantine—then treats each disease in turn. Measles is shown as highly contagious, with a catarrhal
“cold-like” start, Koplik spots, a spreading rash, and risks such as pneumonia and ear infections; care is supportive, isolation brief, and post-exposure blood from the immune can blunt illness. Diphtheria is explained as a toxin-producing bacillus forming throat membrane and dangerous laryngeal obstruction; early, adequate antitoxin is lifesaving, cultures confirm diagnosis, carriers matter, and Schick testing with toxin–antitoxin immunization prevents disease. Scarlet fever (streptococcal) spreads via secretions, presents with sudden fever, sore throat, a scarlet rash, “strawberry” tongue, and later peeling; complications include ear disease, mastoiditis, nephritis, and heart injury; management is supportive, isolation prolonged, and Dick testing with toxin immunization offers protection. Chicken pox features crops of superficial vesicles mainly on the trunk, usually mild, differentiated from smallpox by mixed-stage lesions and distribution; isolation lasts until all scabs fall, with minimal treatment and avoidance of scratching. Whooping cough progresses to paroxysmal cough with a whoop and vomiting, especially dangerous in infants due to pneumonia and convulsions; prevention is hard early, vaccine may lessen severity, and care emphasizes fresh air, careful feeding, an abdominal binder for support, and simple cough suppressants. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78158.html.images | 115 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78158.epub3.images | 263 kB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78158.epub.images | 262 kB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78158.epub.noimages | 197 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78158.kf8.images | 455 kB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78158.kindle.images | 424 kB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78158.txt.utf-8 | 97 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/78158/pg78158-h.zip | 336 kB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Weaver, George H. (George Howitt), 1866-1947 |
|---|---|
| Editor | Fishbein, Morris, 1889-1976 |
| Editor | Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951 |
| Title | Measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever, chicken pox, and whooping cough |
| Original Publication | Girard: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1924. |
| Series Title | Little blue book health series |
| Series Title | Little blue book ; no. 136 |
| Note | Author's middle initial given as "E" on front cover. |
| Credits | Tim Miller, Franciszek Skawiński and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | RJ: Medicine: Pediatrics |
| Subject | Communicable diseases in children |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78158 |
| Release Date | Mar 10, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 190 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |