A text-book on hygiene and pediatrics from a chiropractic standpoint

by J. H. Craven

The major for the poison family is K.P.; for the fever family C.P., the local being Lu.P.; therefore, the combination major is lung place, center place, and kidney place. In making an analysis of the infant with pneumonia it is of the utmost importance to select the specific vertebra in these different regions. Although the patient will have quite a temperature, in many cases a hot box may be detected in the spine. In endeavoring to find a hot box in the spine of an infant the back of the patient should be exposed for sufficient length of time to eliminate the possibility of the temperature being greater at one point than at another because of clothing that may have been heavier at one point than at another.

The vertebra causing the impingement at lung place may be either second or third dorsal. This should be determined by very careful palpation and by the presence of the hot box. We cannot emphasize too greatly the necessity for very careful palpation, since in the child nerve tracing can very seldom be used. In severe cases it may be necessary to adjust as often as once every six hours. With careful conscientious work on the part of the chiropractor, there should be very little danger in losing a patient, even in the most severe cases, and if the adjustments are given in the early stages of the dis-ease, the more marked symptoms will not develop, results will be shown in a very few hours and the child will recover in a short time.

ASTHMA

The type of asthma found among adults very seldom affects infants. The most common form is associated with mild attacks of bronchitis and is of a catarrhal nature. The attacks are very likely to accompany or be associated with different incoördinations involving the bronchi. In some cases the attacks seem to be exaggerated by certain kinds of food which the child eats. It is thought by some that attacks are brought on by the indigestion of some foreign protein. These proteins are very numerous and it is very difficult to determine the particular food in which the offending protein is found. In some patients an attack of asthma may be brought on by the eating of eggs. From a chiropractic standpoint we do not consider that the cause of asthma is in the food which the child eats, although there might be an interference with transmission which would impede the normal processes of digestion, this would result in the production of a poison which might produce certain symptoms. This, however, does not change the fact that when the subluxations are properly adjusted the incoördinations will disappear, regardless of the kind of food that the patient eats.

Symptoms

The acute attack of asthma is accompanied with slight fever and acute catarrhal symptoms. Later the typical asthmatic symptoms appear in which there is a constriction of the bronchi due to spasms of the unstriped muscular fibers. There is hyperemia in the mucous membrane and a slight exudate. Usually the tonsils are enlarged and there are adenoid growths. There is more or less severe dyspnea, moderate cyanosis and, in severe cases, prostration. The peculiarity in respiration consists in a short inhalation with slow, labored exhalation. Dyspnea may be so severe that it is impossible for the child to breathe lying down. There is an almost constant dry teasing cough. Many infants suffering from asthma are inclined to be rachitic.

Equation

The functions involved are motor and calorific; C+ for the heat in the mucous membrane lining the bronchi and M+ for the contraction, muscular contraction in the bronchi, with T+ for the accumulation of the mucin.

Family

This condition involves two families, the fever and spasms family.