Dech-manna-Compositions: The compositions to be used in case of children's diseases will, as indicated above, consist mainly of Plasmogen and Tonogen. Small doses of Eubiogen will be of great advantage in promoting the general condition of the patient. These three compositions should always be available in a family where there are children, as their application will prove very beneficial in any case, even before the arrival of the physician.
Physical: The correct application of ablutions of vinegar and water, of partial and other packs and various baths, must be left to the prescription of the physician, depending on the nature of the individual case, and the effect on the patient, with the exception of the abdominal pack. This should always be applied immediately: cold in positive, and warm in negative diseases.
THE TONSURE OF THE TONSILS.
Though not strictly within the scope of my intention in the present booklet, I feel that no treatise, however brief, which purports to be a free and candid expression of the ills that child-life is heir to, could afford to ignore the burning and much debated question of the tonsils and their significance, present and future, to the well-being of the child, or could deem the task accomplished without raising a warning and protesting voice on behalf of the helpless victims, whose recurrent name is legion, against the callous and persistent violation and destruction of the functions of vital organs, the only shadow of justification of which is, on the one hand, a fashionable popular delusion on the part of parents and, on the other, interested complacency on the part of their medical advisers, accentuated by a strong and dangerous tendency towards operation and empiric surgery generally.
This is a strong and sweeping indictment, perhaps. Let us therefore pause for a moment whilst we consult other sources of opinion for confirmation or refutal.
And, in the wide range of American and English criteria, what corroboration do we find? We find, as regards America, the venerable Professor Alexander H. Stevens, M.D., a member of the New York College of Physicians, writing as follows:
"The reason medicine has advanced so slowly is because physicians have studied the writings of their predecessors instead of nature."
From England the verdict comes to this effect:
Professor Evans, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, of London, says, in part:
"The Medical Practice of our day is, at the best, a most uncertain and unsatisfactory system: it has neither philosophy nor common sense to recommend it to confidence."