An essay on the cerebral affections occurring most commonly in infancy and childhood : including notices of their history, causes, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment ; being the Council prize essay, awarded at the annual meeting of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, held at Bath, on Wednesday and Thursday, August 16th and 17th, 1848 / by Valentine Duke.

Duke, Valentine.

Date:: 1849

Credit: An essay on the cerebral affections occurring most commonly in infancy and childhood : including notices of their history, causes, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment ; being the Council prize essay, awarded at the annual meeting of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, held at Bath, on Wednesday and Thursday, August 16th and 17th, 1848 / by Valentine Duke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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little, and is applicable in cases where the fatigue of a general warm bath would be too great. Nothing will sooner relieve our patient, and assist the means we prescribe, than change of air. It really acts sometimes magically, as all who have seen much of the diseases of children can vouch. Sometimes it may be necessary to have recourse to the use of opium, which, if cautiously and pru- dently administered, will prove a useful assistant in breaking the habit of wakefulness, and procuring sleep. THE HYDRENCEPHALOID DISEASE. The hydrencephaloid disease was first particu- larly described by Dr. Marshall Hall. This affection, he says, in his admirable essay on the subject, may be divided into two stages ; the first that of irritability, the second that of torpor. In the former, there appears to be a feeble attempt at reaction ; in the latter, the powers appear to be more prostrate. These two stages resemble, in many of their symptoms, the first and second, stages of hydrocephalus respectively. It is very necessary to be thoroughly acquainted with the circumstances under which this disease is likely to occur ; for the symptoms are not peculiar to it, but may occur in other affections requiring a very difierent treatment; to wit, in hydrocephalus and in morbid irritability of the brain. If we

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