CHICKASHA  , a

city and the county-seat of Grady county, Oklahoma, U . S . A., near the Washita river, about 45 M . S . S . W. of Oklahoma city . Pop . (1900) 3209; (1907) 7862, including 1043 negroes; (1910) 10,320 . Chickasha is served by the St Louis & San Francisco, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Oklahoma Central railways . It is the trade centre of a very fertile section of the Washita Valley, whose principal products are Indian corn, cotton, fruits and vegetables and live-stock . The city has various manufactures, including flour, cotton-seed oil, lumber, furniture and farm implements . Chickasha was founded in 1892 and was chartered as a city in 1899 .

CHICKEN-PDX (Syn. varicella, a

Low Latin diminutive of variola), a specific contagious disease characterized by an eruption of vesicles in the skin . The disease usually occurs in epidemics, and is one of childhood, the patients being generally between two and six years old . The incubation period is from ten to fifteen days; there are practically no prodromal symptoms, the only indication being a slight amount of fever for some twenty-four hours, after which the eruption makes its appearance . A number of raised red papules appear on the trunk, either on the back or chest; in from twelve to twenty-four hours these develop into tense vesicles filled with a clear fluid, which in another thirty-six hours or so becomes opalescent . During the fourth day these vesicles dry and shrivel up, and the scabs fall off, leaving as a rule no scar . Fresh spots appear during the first three days, so that at the end of that time they can be seen in all stages of growth and decay . The eruption is most marked on the chest, but it also occurs on the face and limbs, and on the mucous membrane of the mouth and palate . The temperature begins to fall after the appearance of the rash, but a certain slight amount may persist after the disappearance of all symptoms . It rarely rises above Io2 F . The disease runs a very favourable course in the majority of cases, and after effects are rare . One attack does not confer immunity, and in numerous cases one individual has had three attacks . The diet should be light, and the patient should be prevented from scratching the spots, which would lead to ulceration and scarring .

After the first few days there is no

necessity to confine the patient to bed . In the large majority of cases, it is easy to distinguish the disease from smallpox, but in certain patients it is very difficult . The chief points in the differential diagnosis are as follows . (1) In chicken-pox the rash is distributed chiefly on the trunk, and less on the limbs . (2) Some of the vesicles are oval, whereas in smallpox they are always hemispherical . They are also more superficial, and have not at the outset the hard shotty feeling of the more virulent disease . (3) The vesicles attain their full growth within twelve to twenty-four hours . (4) The pustules are usually monocular . (5) There is no.prodromal period .