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Show cxxcooooooooooococoooooooo HOW TO KEEP. WELL DR. FREDERICK R. GREEN Editor of "HEALTH" OCOOCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (. 1925, Western Newspaper Cnlon.) RAT-BITE FEVER TD AT bites are not common In this country. Although the rat population popu-lation Is said to be at least as large, if not larger thau the human, the two apparently come together seldom. In the country, where numerous rats are found under barns, corn cribs and wood sheds, and where children go barefoot at least part of the year, rat bites are probably much more frequent than Is usually supposed. In Japan, where the houses are of loose construction, where every one sleeps on mats on the floor and where many of the people go barefooted all the year round, rat bites are much more common than in this country. The doctors in Japan have found that there is a definite disease which may be gotten from a rat bite, just as hydrophobia hy-drophobia can be gotten from a dog bite. They call it sodoku, j Any kind of a bite, so far as the wound is concerned is like any other kind of a stabbing or tearing wound. Its seriousness depends largely on the kind of a weapon that makes it. A stab wound with a new, clean, bright knife is not as dangerous as the same wound made with an old, jagged, dirty knife. But animals' teeth are seldom clean. Our old English saying is "as clean as a hound's tooth." But hounds or any other kinds of dogs very seldom have clean teeth. They may have hydrophobia, hy-drophobia, If they have been bitten by a mad dog. Even if they do not have this worst of dog diseases, they have in their mouths and on their teeth germs of various kinds, which stay in the wound and produce infection, causing pain, swelling and sometimes fever. : Eats also generally have some kind of germ in their mouths, so that the rat bites usually become infected and may cause fever. In about ten to twenty days after the bite, the patient, pa-tient, often a child, will complain of headache, weakness and muscular pains. The bite, evea if It has apparently ap-parently healed, becomes swollen, painful and a reddish blue color. The glands or "kernels" nearest the bite become swollen and tender. If the bite Is on the foot, the glands In the groin are swollen ; If on the hands, the glands In the arm pit. Fever, nausea, vomiting vomit-ing follow and, In severe cases, the child may become delirious. The fever lasts several days, then disappears for from two to six days and reappears. A bluish red rash appears on the body. The disease may last weeks or months. Most cases eventually recover. recov-er. Treatment consists in cauterizing the bite with carbolic acid and In the injection of arsphenamlne. |