A practical treatise on the diseases of children / by Alfred Vogel ; translated and edited by H. Raphael.

Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases of children / by Alfred Vogel ; translated and edited by H. Raphael. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    CHAPTER II. GENERAL RULES FOR THE EXAMINATION OF CHILDREN. Very small children, only a few weeks old, are very indifferent to a professional examination; they sleep much, and feel so com- fortable when relieved of the firm bandages * for a little while, that they are rarely restless and unquiet. But Avhen they once begin to recognize and distinguish surrounding objects, as is often the case with children three months old, every strange face frightens them, therefore also that of the physician who is called in to attend them. In some children this timidity lasts only till the eighteenth or twenty- fourth month; sometimes it decreases, sometimes again it increases, in others it persists till the fourth or sixth year. Much depends, how- ever, upon the circumstances under which the child grows up ; it will be the more timid, the fewer persons it has an opportunity to see; children that grow up in the city are, therefore, less timid than those reared in the country. There are three circumstances which act as obstacles to the child’s physician: the absence of speech, the marked agitation which the ex- amination always induces, and, lastly, the crying which often ac- companies this agitation. The first obstacle, of comse, cannot be removed; it may, however, in a measure be replaced by a well-directed, comprehensive interrogation of those in charge of the child; the last two, on the contrary, must be avoided. When a child has been washed, and nursed, or fed, it generally falls asleep; and, as these necessities in respectable families are at- tended to at about the same time every day, it is therefore very easy to observe and examine the child while asleep, and for this purpose it should be dressed in such light garments as will not necessitate its disturbance in removing them. Its sleeping is favorable for that examination which can only be fully appreciated when carried out with the utmost quietness—that part of the examination which can be made regardless of the agitation and crying may be deferred till the child is awake. From this it follows that the examination of sick children must be undertaken at two separate periods of time, namely, during its rest and during its agitation. The expression of the coun- tenance, the attitude and involuntary motions of the body and ex- ^ [In Germany, and most of the countries of Europe, the entire body of the infant is bandaged with a long, broad cloth.]