The diseases of infancy and childhood : for the use of students and practitioners of medicine / by L. Emmett Holt and John Howland.
- Luther Emmett Holt
- Date:
- 1911
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The diseases of infancy and childhood : for the use of students and practitioners of medicine / by L. Emmett Holt and John Howland. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.
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![111 llio most acute attacks either salicylate of soda (gr. v every three hours to a child of five years), oil of wintergreen, aspirin, or salicin should be given; as the majority of cases are not very acute, marked improve- ment is by no means always obtained by these drugs. Alkalies should be given in all cases in combination with the specific remedies, Imt par- ticularly in those in which there is hyperacidity of the urine. Either tiie acetate or citrate of ]3otassium or the bicarbonate of sodium may be used, a sufficient quantity being administered to render the urine alkaline. Quite as important as these drugs is the use of general tonics, partic- ularly iron and cod-liver oil. These should be given not only between attacks to fortify patients against their recurrence, but also in subacute cases which are sometimes influenced very little or not at all either by salicylates or alkalies. CHAPTEE II. DIABETES MELLITUS. In this chapter will be attempted only a description of the peculiar features which diabetes presents when affecting young patients. It is a very infrequent disease in children. Of 1,360 cases of diabetes col- lected by Pavy, only eight were under ten years of age. In a series of 700 cases collected by Prout, only one case was under ten years. In a series of 380 cases collected by Meyer, only one case was under ten years of age. Etiology.—Stern, in a series of 117 collected cases of diabetes in chil- dren, states that 47 were females and 31 males, the sex in the other cases not being given. Although extremely rare, cases have been ob- served during the first two years, and even during the first year of life. Statistics on this point are not altogether trustworthy, since some cases of temporary glycosuria have certainly been included. Among the etiological factors, heredity is one of the most important. Pavy reports the case of a child dying of diabetes at two years in whose family th-e disease had existed for three generations. Instances have been recorded of the occurrence of diabetes in four or five children of the same family. Inherited gout, insanity, and nervous diseases gen- erally, may be looked upon as factors in the production of diabetes. Sev- eral of the cases reported in children have been preceded by injuries received upon the head. In a number of my own cases the disease has followed the consumption of large quantities of sugar for a long time. Often no adequate cause can be found. Symptoms.—The most important early symptoms are thirst, polyuria, and wasting; their development is often quite rapid. The thirst is intense, often leading children to drink four or five pints of fluid a day.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21218407_1153.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
