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Regimen, etc (Should be light and properly)

The regimen should be light and properly seasoned; the air dry and clear; exercise and motion should be encouraged, and bandages as well as instruments contrived to keep the limbs in a proper situation; but we should take care that they be so formed as not to put the child to pain or restrain it too much.

Cold sea-bathing is of infinite use, after which friction should be used, and the child placed between two blankets, so as to encourage perspiration. The back should be well rubbed with opodeldoc or good old rum every night. Chalybeates are also very serviceable.

A decoction of Peruvian bark is also good, with red wine; it is to be used with moderation in the forenoon and after dinner.

Distortion of the Spine.

Dr. Weitch, an eminent physician of Berlin, has published in Hufeland's journal a simple remedy for weakness of the back-bone of infants, and which he considers capable of preventing distortion. This method consists, first, in frequent and close examination of the child's back-bone, and secondly, on the slightest trace of any distortion, to wash the same with brandy every morning and night, and to pay the strictest attention to the child's keeping a straight posture both sleeping and waking, and if it can be bathed from time to time it will be so much the better.

Jelly from the Raspings of Ivory.

The raspings of ivory impart to boiling water a very pleasant jelly, which has been found more easy of digestion and more nutritious than that of the hartshorn shavings or isinglass. Mixed with the jelly of the arrow-root in the proportion of one part to seven, it has been recommended for weakly and rickety children and consumptive or emaciated invalids.

Ringworm and Scald Head. any other.

Treatment. The intractableness of most children, when attempted to be controlled or governed by the accustomed mode of treatment, proves in most instances a material obstacle in the way of curing this malignant disease, and the quickness with which the hair of the scalp grows in children, has hitherto in many instances rendered every effort ineffectual. It was a constant failure under these inauspicious circumstances that led Mr. Barlow, a medical professor in Lancashire, to adopt the subjoined lotion: Take of sulphate of potassa, recently prepared, 3 drachms; Spanish white soap 1½ drachms; lime-water 74 ounces, and spirits of wine 2 drachms. Mix by shaking well in a phial.

By bathing the affected head with this lotion a few times, morning and evening, and suffering the parts to dry without interruption, the scabs will loosen and peel off from the scalp, and leave the parts underneath perfectly healed, without torturing the patient by shaving the head, though the hair should be kept short.

Ointment for the same.

Take of spermaceti ointment 1 ounce; tar ointment 1 ounce; powdered angustura bark 3 drachms. Rub the whole well in a marble mortar and apply to the parts affected.

Alterative Medicines.

In six cases out of ten this disease is aggravated by a scrofulous taint of system, and when this is the case the following alterative medicines accelerates the cure:

Iodide of potassium 1 drachm; water 6 ounces.

Give a teaspoonful night and morning.

Instead of the above 1 grain of calomel may be given going to rest, and repeated every night for a few nights; also, the use of arsenic and of salt water, externally and internally as an alterative, has been found very useful.

In all cases the bowels ought to be kept open, and the diet should consist of wholesome and nutritive food, avoiding fish and salt meats. Cleanliness and occasional use of the warm bath will likewise be of service.

Hooping Cough.

This convulsive cough is occasioned by a viscid matter which cannot be easily expectorated. The poor infant, in endeavoring to bring it up, strains violently, till he becomes almost suffocated and convulsed.

Remedies. In this complaint, next to occasional vomiting, the daily use of the warm bath is most useful. Bleeding may sometimes be used to prevent inflammation of the internal membranes, or cupping between the neck and shoulders. Gentle emetics may be given early. Give a tablespoonful of milk of assafœtida every four hours, or half as much, with five or ten drops of wine of ipecac, or, in violent cases, 2 or 3 grains of musk as often.

To the above may be added, as auxiliaries, a Burgundy pitch plaster on the pit of the stomach, a flannel waistcoat or shirt next the skin, and a change of air when practicable. The diet should be light and easy of digestion, avoiding everything of a fat and oily nature. Embrocation for Hooping Cough.

It is well known that these disorders, which are in many respects similar, are contagious; therefore no comb or hair-brush used by a child affected by them is to be used by another child either in a school or in the same family. Normorning till it becomes soro. Take of tartar emetic 2 drachms; boiling wa. ter 2 ounces: tincture of cantharides 1 drachm; oil of thyme 3 drachms. Mix. A dessertspoonful to be rubbed upon the chest every night and Regimen, etc., for Hooping Cough.

A frequent change of air is exceedingly useful in hooping cough, particularly short voyages at sea; at the same time flannel is to be worn next the skin. Young children should lie with their heads and shoulders raised, and when the cough occurs they ought to be placed on their feet and bent a little forward, to guard against suffocation. The diet should be light and the drink warm and mucilaginous.

The Croup.

This disease is almost peculiar to children, and sometimes fatal, if care is not taken in the commencement. It commonly approaches with the usual signs of a catarrh, but sometimes the peculiar symptoms occur at the first onset; namely, a hoarseness, with a shrill ringing sound both in speaking and coughing, as if the noise came from a brazen tube. At the same time there is a sense of pain about the larynx, and some difficulty of respiration, with a whizzing sound in inspiration, as if the passage of air was diminished, which is actually the case. The cough is generally dry, but if anything is spit up, in the worst cases it is a matter, sometimes resembling small portions of a membrane. There is also a frequent pulse, restlessness, and an uneasy sense of heat. The inside of the mouth is sometimes without inflammation, but frequently a redness, and even a swelling, exists. Sometimes there is an appearance of matter on them, like that ejected by coughing.

Remedies. As soon as possible a brisk emetic should be administered, for the purpose of freeing the patient from the coagulable lymph which is already secreted. The powder, wine or syrup of ipecac will generally answer. In obstinate cases a teaspoonful of alum powder with one of ipecac is recommended. Topical bleeding, by means of leeches, should immediately succeed, and the discharge be encouraged. As soon as it diminishes, a blister so large as to cover the whole throat should be applied, and suffered to lie on for thirty hours or longer. Then warm steam should be inhaled, and the bowels should be evacuated by calomel.

As soon as the emetic has operated sufficiently, 1 grain doses of calomel with 5 grains of nitre may be administered, by which means the breathing will in general be soon relieved; but should it become more difficult in the course of a few hours the emetic is to be again repeated, and after its operation the opium again employed. This practice is to be alternately used till such time as the patient is out of danger, which will in general be in the course of three or four days. The child should be kept nearly upright in bed.

The warm bath is very useful in this complaint.

As an adjunct, apply an ointment to the breast, composed of 5 grains of tartar emetic, and 5 grains of powdered opium, to a drachm of spermaceti cerate, until eruptions are excited on the skin.