Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/319

LEFT SCARLET 273 SCARRON SCARLET, a beautiful bright red color, brighter than crimson. The finest scarlet dye is obtained from cochineal. SCARLET BEAN, or SCARLET RUN- NER, a twining plant, the Phaseolus multiflorns, a native of Mexico, cultivated as a green vegetable or as an ornamen- tal plant. SCARLET FEVER, or SCARLATINA, a contagious febrile disease, almost al- ways attended during a part of its course by a rash and by sore throat. Sometimes only one of these features is well marked, sometimes both. Though persons of all ages are susceptible to it, it is eminently a disease of children. It is infectious and contagion may be carried by clothing, school-books, etc. Like smallpox or measles it rarely attacks a person more than once. It usually comes on with shiverings and a feeling of lassitude, fol- lowed by more or less of fever, restless- ness, loss of appetite, headache, nausea, and occasionally by vomiting. The erup- tion appears on the second or third day in the form of closely aggregated points about the size of a pin's head. The period of desquamation, owing to excessive pro- duction of new epidermis, follows in two or three days. The eruption is most marked on the face. The throat is seriously involved, the tonsils becoming swollen with catarrhal pharyngitis, tena- cious mucous secretion, and oedema, with great difficulty in swallowing. Inflam- mation of the parotids and other glands often occurs, with suppuration and ab- scess, destroying the cell tissues, with sloughing, and occasionally fatal hemor- rhage. Physicians have generally distinguished three different varieties of scarlet fever; viz., S. simplex, in which there is a florid rash and little or no affection of the throat; S. anginosa, in which both the skin and the throat are decidedly im- plicated; and <S. 'maligna, in which the stress of the disease falls on the throat. S. simplex is a very mild form of the dis- ease, and deviates only slightly from a state of health. Scarlatina is also dan- gerous from its tendency to give rise to other complaints, as boils or strumous ulcers, various forms of scrofula, etc. The kidneys are more affected in this dis- ease than any other organ, nephritis being a common accompaniment, and dropsy a very frequent sequel. It is very contagious, the infection persisting for a long time, and tending to attack every member of a family not protected by a previous attack. Its regular course is from two to three weeks, the period of infection being strongest during the process of desquamation, and lasting fof about three weeks from the commence ment of that process. It is most fatal in the very young, during pregnancy, or in adults suffering from organic diseases, or when complications exist. There is no known specific for this formidable mal- ady. SCARLET FISH, a name given to the telescope carp, from its brilliant red color. SCARLET TANAGER, in ornithology, the Pyranga rubra, a summer visitant to the United States, retiring S. in winter. The popular name is derived from the prevailing hue of the summer plumage of the male. SCARR, JAMES HENRY, an Ameri- can meteorologist, born in Ionia co., Mich., in 1867. From 1887 to 1889 he was a student at the State Normal School at Emporia, Kan. For a time he studied law, and from 1889 to 1895 was engaged in teaching in the public schools. He was admitted to the bar in 1892 and prac- ticed law until 1898, when he entered the employment of the United States Weather Bureau. He was local forecaster at Sac- ramento, Cal., from 1901 to 1908; at Tampa, Fla., in 1908-9 ; and in New York City since 1909. SCARRON, PAUL (Skiir-ro?^'), a French author; born in Paris July, 1610. At the age of 30, in consequence of a rheumatic attack, in which he was treated PAUL SCARRON by a quack doctor, he became an invalid for life, — deformed and contorted, and suffering continual pain. His best work is the "Comic Romance" (2 vols. 1651- 1657, but never completed), the story of a band of strolling actors. In this novel Scarron draws on Spanish sources, as he does also in the comedies "The Ridiculous Heir"; "Jodelet"; "Don Japhet of Ar-