The tongue is dry and stiff, as a general thing, throughout the disease. The body, with the exception of the belly, is dry and cool. The mouth is apt to be hot from the beginning, a sign remarked by mothers who have suckled babes with cholera; in the last stage, the disposition to sleep, but start at the least noise; the mouth lying half open, the intelligent attempts to suck; the decrease of the discharges from the bowels; the cessation of retching; the sinking in of the features; the nervous grasping, as if to catch some passing object; jerking of the body, and moaning, may be looked upon as unfavorable signs.
It is a great mistake to conclude that infants will have cholera if weaned early, or if they are to be artificially nursed. The fear comes from persons having been so educated within the last half century.
All kinds of preparations are advertised and eagerly sought for baby diet; as if the internal organs of babes were entirely different from what they were before, and must needs be supplied with something more supernatural than those of the adult. The symptoms of cholera are by no means uniform. For instance, they may be cut short, or aggravated by overdosing, before the facts in the case are made known. Thus, if paregoric, laudanum, or any alcoholic carminatives are habitually put in the drink, the most marked signs will be the smell of the breath, the presence of constipation, stupor and sinking in of the features more or less, with very little vomiting. Such cases, no doubt, are seldom admitted, the victims being dead, or nearly so, when medical aid is called.
SECTION IV. GENERAL TREATMENT OF CHOLERA INFANTUM, MEDICAL AND DOMESTIC.
Unfortunately for many children, it is usually in the last stage of the disease that a physician is consulted. Probably any number of palliatives have been given with good intentions and high hopes of success. For one, the old cleaning-out remedy, so much thought of by old ladies, and doctors not a few,—castor-oil. Whatever may be deemed as proper treatment, it should be remembered that nothing short of the most untiring vigilance on the part of the attendant, guided by Divine aid, can bring success in raising a child on whom cholera has fastened its blighting fangs. Yet what encouragement it is to know that by those means it can be saved.