The student's guide to diseases of children.
- Sir James Goodhart, 1st Baronet
- Date:
- 1886
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The student's guide to diseases of children. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![foutanelle may thus appear to lie in a hollow, the frontal l)one being unusually prominent, and the inter- frontal suture converted into a ^■ertical ridge, from the exuberant bone-formation along it; while the parietal bones become bossed irregularly. Tliis .skull has been called the natiform skull, from the appe.arances pro- duced by the bon}' elevations, and, as the bones ai'o often soft, “ craniotabes ” may be associated with this condition. Ttis,however,still an open question whether this form of skull is due to syphilis or to rickets. The scaphoid skull is a narrow skull, in which the frontal region is boat-like and slopes away from the median line, betokening the small brain of an imbecile or idiot. The fontanelle liy bulging may indicate excess of blood or cerebro-spinal liuid within the cranium ; by its size it may indicate defective ossifica- tion, and so rickets; but of more imjiortance, because of almost invariable significance, is the depressed fon- tanelle of starvation and exhaustion ; it indicates the immediate necessity of food or stim\dants. As regards the face, it may be mentioned that shades of pallor are most suggestive—a- dirty white (erf/c au /ait) stands for congenital syphilis; a sallow white for splenic disease ; a pallor with a sub-tint of blue {milic and water) for tuberculosis; a livid, leaden, or earthy tint for collapse from abdominal disease. There are certain markings upon the face—dadelot’s lines, as they are called, from the k'rench physician who has described them very fully. Of these it niustsullico to say that about the eyes or forehead t hey are usually indicative of cerebral disease. The nostrils are chiefly concerned in res]uratory disease, and lines dividing outward from the mouth ai'e occasionally seen in abdominal disease; one from the angle of the mouth outwards on to tlu; cheek in resjiiratory disease. Then there arc the various com[)lexious which arc sup- posed by many to indicate jiarticular diatheses or ten- dencies to disease—the lu'ctty, thin-skinned children of tubercular proclivities ; the sallow, muddy appearance](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24990462_0027.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
