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.
33/732 page 13
![Such flnklren, from inex})lif;ible reasons, are liable to svulden sharji febrile attacks, in which cougli and rapiility of pulse are prominent symjitoms, and which closely simulate the onset of acute thoracic disease. The problem speedily solved itself, for, on the thinl morning, an aperient having Iteen given meanwhile, and some alkaline draught, the fever had subsided, and the boy was irractically well. Treatment.— L had purposed to (h'vote a chapter to special points in the treatment of children, but, thinking the matter over, the necessity, nay even the wisdom, of so doing may be doubted. For after all the iJosiKje for children, the one great di'cad of students, is a matter which, if stated with precision in a pnsological t.able, is never handy for reference, and is hardly reliable if it be. With one or two exceptions every one must make his own table in his own memory, and must feel his way. Herein is one of the advan- tages of experience, which can hardly bo gained in any other manner, (dpium has been a great l)ugbear in this respect. All powerful drugs must naturally be given with caution to children, but opium is pcudiaps the only one which requires exce.ssive precaution. It must be given to infants in inhnitesimal propor- tions, and there ai’e some practitioners who evade its use at this time of life as much as ])os,sible. Still, for examjilo, combined with castor oil, it is a useful drug in bad cases of llatulent colic; in pleurisy also it is of great value. Perhaps one drop to a two-ounc(^ mix- ture,of which a drachm mav be taken,is an averaire dose in the lirst si.x weeks of life. 'I’his (piantity may have to be lessened, but it will cei-tainly in many cases be neces- sary to increase it, and after the first two or three months the extreme susce])tibilitv to tJie drug dis- appears, and half a drop may then be given for a dose. At two or three years old two-grain doses of l)over’.s powder may be given, when ro(piisit(', without fear. Bromide of potassium, a most valuable remedy in many of the diseases of children, must be given to](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24990462_0033.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
