Mother, Nurse and Infant / A Manual Especially Adapted for the Guidance of Mothers and Monthly Nurses, Comprising Full Instruction in Regard To Pregnancy, Preparation for Child-birth, and the Care of Mother and Child, and Designed to Impart so Much Knowledge of Anatomy, Physiology, Midwifery, and the Proper Use of Medicines as Will Serve Intelligently to Direct the Wife, Mother and Nurse in All Emergencies.

by S. P. Sackett

There is more REDNESS than is natural in a part that is inflamed. There is more blood than usual in the vessels that carry red blood, and the red blood enters into the small vessels where the red particles cannot commonly be seen. All the minute vessels seem to be enlarged. The redness often remains sometime after the inflammation has ceased.

The degree of SWELLING in different cases depends partly on the nature and structure of the part affected and partly on the intensity of the inflammation; in some instances there is so little that it is not appreciable.

Almost all the swelling results from the presence of matters thrown into the inflamed part. In the central hard portion the hardness is to be ascribed to an effusion into the areolar tissue of it, of a fluid which is transparent at first, afterwards becoming opaque, called coagulable lymph. Serum is effused into the areolar tissue of the softer swelling at the circumference.

ŒDEMA, DROPSY, ANASARCA.

Even under moderate inflammation some amount of effusion takes place into the texture or from the surface of a part. This effusive serous fluid called also serosity, resembles and probably is the scrum of the blood. When this passes into the areolar structure of a part it is called œdema, (though this is not always by inflammation) and if the serosity passes out extensively over the body, the disease is called anasarca or general dropsy.

If a considerable amount of this serous fluid is poured out in a short time from the peritoneum, it is a form of ascites or abdominal dropsy. If it is thus poured into the pleura it causes apnœa, or difficulty of breathing, and requires aspirating.

CHAPTER III.
DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASES IN CHILDREN, EARLY TREATMENT, &C.

It is not often that a correct diagnosis can be made of a disease by a single symptom, but there are marked and characteristic symptoms which indicate some diseases in children with considerable certainty.

A strongly marked nasal or palate sound in the child’s cry indicates an abscess behind the pharynx. When this nasal tone is heard we should palpate with the finger on the throat to ascertain the degree of soreness.

A long drawn, ten times lengthened, loud sounding expiration with normal inspiration, and no dyspnœa is sufficient for the diagnosis of CHOREA MAJOR (St. Vitus dance.)