The hygiene of the throat and ear : a popular guide to the causes, prevention, and curability of their diseases / by Gordon Holmes.

  • Holmes, Gordon (William Gordon), 1845-
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The hygiene of the throat and ear : a popular guide to the causes, prevention, and curability of their diseases / by Gordon Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/96 (page 16)
    breathing, is tluTs explained ; for, as tlie passage near the hack of the nose is mnch obstructed, respiration lias usually to ])e carried on by the mouth alone, whilst during sleep the tongue is naturally drawn backwards so as wholly or partially to close the entrance to the pharynx, and hence breathing can only be carried on by a kind of struggle between the tongue and palate, which are opposed to each other. When the tonsils are much enlarged, the impediment to free respiration injuriously affects the health of the child, and may even cause a deformity of the chest walls (the ribs) by the abnormal stram which is placed on the still soft bones, in order to force the air in and out of the lungs. Causes and Preventimi.—lu young children, enlarged tonsils are altogether a local development of the scrofulous or strumous cachexia. Later on, though always allied to a constitutional taint, they may be more immediately caused by repeated attacks of quinsy of the less severe type. Children become scrofulous either by inheriting delicacy from their parents, or by improper rearing. V\Tien not srrfiiciently nursed by their mothers in the first few months after birth, when arrowroot, cornflom-, and probably preserved milk are relied on for their total nourishment during the first year, they are almost certain to acquire the strumous taint. If the mother's resources are scanty, and a wet-nurse is not obtainable, fresh cow's milk, diluted with half its bulk of water, and strengthened witli powdered oatmeal—the last ingredient very sparingly for the first six weeks, but afterwards steadily in- creased—is the most promising diet for the infant.* Scrofrdous children are generally pale, flabby, and bulky, but deficient in muscular strength, with swelled glands in the neck, -which at * Cow's milk often irritates the bowels of infants, jiroilucing more or less diarrhoea, with green discharges. Meat should be given very cautiously till twelve or fifteen months have pa.ssed, as it causes the disease known as rickcis, which is evidenced by swellings of the joints.