The moistened fullers' earth may afterwards be applied as directed above. Milk, so frequently employed by nurses as a wash in these cases, by turning sour on the part, often excites fresh irritation. A preparation of lead, termed ceruse powder, in very general use, as a dusting powder for children, is a very dangerous application; and I have no doubt has occasioned the death of many children, by producing convulsions and inflammation of the bowels, instances of which I have noticed under the head of Goulard's Extract of Lead, No. 30. In the Domestic Medicine of Dr. Buchan, the sugar of lead is imprudently recommended to be added to an absorbent powder when the parts are very sore, or tend to ulceration, without even specifying the quantity. The doctor should have known that lead, in a saline state, is a dangerous application for adults, and much more so for infants. From the inattention of medical men to these particulars in the management of infants, their diseases are often referred to a wrong cause, and their lives sacrificed to the prejudices and ignorance of nurses. OF THE RED GUM. - This disease consists in an eruption of small pimples on the skin, which are evident to the touch, generally red, but sometimes yellowish. They appear for the most part on the face, and sometimes on the body and extremities, in clusters or large patches. It is considered by most medical practitioners to be salutary, and it often seems to relieve infants of complaints of the bowels, and difficulty of breathing; but sometimes it is attended with no such benefit, and may frequently be traced to some imprudent practice of the nurse, either in washing the infant with brandy as soon as it was born (from a mistaken notion that it hardens the skin), or by roughly washing it with soap, for the purpose of removing the thick glutinous matter with which all infants are more or less covered when born, and which I have no doubt is intended by nature to protect the tender skin during its fœtal state, and to guard it against the action of the atmospheric air on its being born. If this slimy covering be removed in such quantity as gentle washing with warm water, and a soft old piece of linen will take off, it will leave the skin white and healthy, instead of the dark, red, and irritable state occasioned by the spirit*, soap †, and friction, so generally employed for its removal. The evaporation of a spirit from the surface of the body, either of an infant or an adult, occasions such a degree of cold as to check insensible perspiration, and thereby bring on inflammation of the brain, lungs, bowels, or eyes. The practice, likewise, instead of hardening the skin, renders it more tender; it cannot, therefore, be too much deprecated. The most simple wash for children is a water in which some almond pow As the eruption is sometimes critical, it would not be advisable to employ an external application to repel it, but rather to prevent its sudden repulsion, by avoiding exposure to cold air, and by keeping the bowels gently open with magnesia and rhubarb and should it suddenly disappear, and the child be evidently indisposed in consequence of it, the warm-bath and a gentle emetic of ipecacuan will be necessary, which, by producing a determination to the skin, generally succeed to reproduce it. If cough, or difficulty of breathing, or a violent affection of the bowels, intervene, medical advice should be immediately resorted to. OF THE THRUSH. This disease appears in white specks on the corner of the lips, the tongue, and back part of the palate, sometimes gradually spreading over the inside of the mouth, and throughout the intestinal canal. Infants brought up by the hand are most subject to this disorder, and to those it does not unfrequently prove fatal. The cure of thrush greatly depends on a change of diet. The combination of vegetable and animal jellies, as directed under the head of Arrow-root, or the employment of veal-broth, or beef-tea, thickened with arrow-root or fine wheat-flour, is proper. A costive state of the bowels should be obviated by occasional doses of magnesia, with either calomel or rhubarb, and the parts affected may be touched with the following detergent liniment three or four times a day, by means of a large camelhair pencil:- Take of Honey of Roses, one ounce; Muriatic Acid, ten drops; Liquid Laudanum, forty drops. — Mix. Borax, well mixed with honey, in the proportion of one drachm of the former to an ounce of the latter, has been much recommended, and, on account of its consistency, will often answer better than a thin liniment. In the advanced stage of thrush, when the system is much reduced, the child should be supported by a little Port wine and nourishing jellies. The observations made on the treatment of inward fits, page 548, apply to this disease. In the treatment of thrush, it is necessary to attend to diet, to take care that the food be not given too warm; and to correct acidity in the stomach either by magnesia or lime-water, according to the state of the bowels. If the child be restless, the use of laudanum, as directed in cases of difficult dentition, will be necessary. The other diseases of infants are noticed, in their alphabetical order, in the second part of this work. der has been rubbed between the hands; or fine almond powder may be used instead of soap. This will, in all cases, answer better than soap, the alcaline salt of which injures the skin, while the almond powder renders it healthy, Alum Whey (note), ................. 350 Anasarca, see Dropsy, André, Mr., his remedy for Tic 148 555 515 ......... 173 ...... ........ Arsenic, the means of counteract- Anger, effects of, ........................................................ 240 Ascarides, see Worms, 393 Aperient Chalybeate Water, di- 58 89 Mixture, 111 Sulphureous Salt, 151 Aperients, defined, Apoplexy, causes, treatment, &c., of, Aphtha, see Thrush, Apparatus, useful, employed in medicine, 221 |