"Soon after making the first application of sponges to the throat, I wrapped the child in a woolen blanket, wrung out in warm water, as a substitute for a warm bath, and gave twenty drops of the wine of antimony in a little sweetened water, which was swallowed with difficulty. I persevered in the application of the hot, moist sponges for an hour, when the child was so much relieved that I ventured to leave it.
"These applications were continued through the night, and in the morning the child was well."
It will never do to trifle with this terrible disease. The quicker the remedies are applied, the better. Instead of antimony, we would recommend small quantities of alum water, given every ten or fifteen minutes, until the child vomits.
855. _Rickets_--Are, for the most part, induced by improper food and bad nursing. Their approach is marked by a sickly, pallid countenance, cough, and difficult respiration. The bones of the legs and arms lose their firmness, and become more or less crooked; the bones of the head do not unite, and the spine becomes distorted. At its first appearance it may be successfully counteracted by a strict attention to cleanliness in every thing that concerns the child, by exercise in the open air, by cold bathing, by friction of the limbs night and morning, and by a light, nutritious diet. Before the use of the bath, the bowels should be cleared by the following aperient powder:--
Take of Rhubarb, in fine powder, six grains; calcined magnesia, three grains; common mint-water, six drachms. Mix them together.
During the use of the cold bath, either Peruvian bark or steel may be employed to strengthen the child: such as,
The precipitate of the sulphate of iron, three grains; syrup of cinnamon, a tea-spoonful. When mixed, to be taken three times a-day. Or, take of the resinous extract of bark, one drachm; the syrup of cinnamon, seven drachms. Mix them together. The dose, a tea-spoonful, three times a-day.
856. _Scrofula._--Although it has been considered as an hereditary disease, may be induced in a child, whose parents have no such taint, by a neglect of proper food, air and exercise. On the contrary, when the taint does exist in the parent, the offspring may pass through life with the enjoyment of tolerable health, by a strict attention to those means which are known to invigorate the body. Of preventives, there are none so efficacious as sea air, sea bathing, and the internal use of the sea water, in sufficient quantity to act on the bowels, and the local application of it to the glands which are enlarged. Indeed, the children of diseased parents should reside on the coast, in order to have the full benefit of these advantages. Friction should be applied generally on the surface of the body, with the hand covered with a flannel glove, night and morning. Food of easy digestion is to be preferred, such as shell-fish, game, poultry, beef or mutton. Bark and steel, as medicines, may be occasionally administered with good effect. This disease, which bids defiance to the regular physician, cannot with propriety be placed on the list of casualties, or sudden seizures.