I think this is the proper place in which to mention a very injurious fallacy as regards what are called infantile ailments. It is a fact that children of tender years are more likely to be attacked by certain ailments, of which measles is as good an illustration as any, simply because they are weak, and these, in certain states of the atmosphere, especially in villages where sanitation is utterly neglected, are apt to become epidemic, carrying away to their little graves victims that are not strong enough to fight against the trouble, for Nature’s law that the fittest shall survive is fixed and immutable. But it is a great mistake to believe that children must have such ailments, and the sooner such an error of belief is written down and eradicated the better. Scarlatina is another ailment which often breaks out in villages, especially in Board schools; and remembering the utter want of fresh air and cleanliness which prevails in these seminaries, one cannot wonder. During an epidemic of this sort the school is closed, and the children, sick or well, go to their squalid dens and unhealthy huts to live or die, as the case may be, for they “break up” at school only to hatch out the seeds of illness already sown in their systems. But your well-fed, well-cared-for children, and such as sleep at night in fresh air without more than sufficient bed-clothing, do not succumb to these disorders, be they ever so rife.
Surely, then, prevention is better than cure. I shall now mention one or two of these so-called infantile troubles that some young mothers who read this brief paper may know a little more about them and their causes. I advise everyone who has the care of children to keep in the house in its little case a clinical thermometer. The family doctor will be very pleased, I am sure, to show parents how to use it, and whenever the temperature mounts over a hundred the physician should be called in.
Measles.—The ailment is ushered in somewhat similarly to a bad cold, and often passes at first for a touch of influenza. But the girl is feverish with loss of appetite, and no heart for play. Then about the third day come out the rose-coloured spots, first on the brow. They are so close together as to almost coalesce. The fever now gets worse, and the case is one for the doctor to superintend; but the parents ask the question: “Will she get over it?” I am glad to answer in the affirmative, only that nasty wee word “if” comes in—if the case does not become complicated, for bronchitis may ensue, or inflammation of the lungs itself, and then there is great danger. And bear this in mind; the child that has been treated while in health in a common-sense way, not “plotted,” over-coddled, or over-crammed as to food, has by far and away the greatest chance of getting over this ailment or scarlatina either.
Scarlatina.—When this becomes epidemic in small towns and badly-drained villages, the Angel of Death has indeed spread his wings on the blast.
If there is scarlet fever or scarlatina (the milder sort) about, and your little girl begins to ail from no apparent cause, suffering from loss of appetite and cheerfulness, if she has chills alternating with flushing, hot skin and uneasy sleep, with a little headache and maybe sore throat, with a high temperature and furred tongue, having little red papillæ showing through—the “strawberry tongue”—then in all probability she has an attack of scarlatina. We shall hope it is to be a simple one. Cure it you can’t; but the little patient may be guided through it.
The doctor is the man to trust. But there is one thing you can assist him in most materially, and that is in seeing that the patient is completely isolated from the rest of the house, for the simplest cases in one child may generate the worst in others. It is a more dangerous disorder than measles, and mind that, until the doctor gives a clean bill of health, and the skin has entirely peeled, no other child should be allowed into the room. Indeed, the success in any one case depends on careful nursing, and isolation will prevent it spreading. Disinfectants must of course be used—but the doctor will tell you all this—and food taken from the room must not even be given to the cat or dog. She will pull through if scientifically treated, and soon grow out of any little weaknesses that may remain.
St. Vitus’s Dance.—Will she grow out of this? I do really think that the medical profession has a good deal to learn even yet concerning this strange ailment. But its symptoms are unmistakable. The uncontrollable, fidgety movements may be slight or very great; they may be on one side of the body or both. She will grow out of it, however, if the treatment is most skilful. The health must be properly attended to, and all rules obeyed which the doctor shall lay down. The digestion and the teeth must be seen to, with abundance of fresh air and non-exciting exercise and recreation. The bath often does wonders—tepid, of course—given in a warm room. There are certain kinds of methodical drill which, moreover, do good, and many kinds of tonics. But cod-liver oil or marrol is perhaps one of the best, as it is a food. The doctor will for each case prescribe the necessary tonic. Dear me! what thousands of thousands of lives might be saved if we could only act up to the physician’s instructions. I must bid the young mother beware of quack medicines, and of all such dangerous drugs as chloral, bromides, and phenaticin, etc. In the hands of the physician these are useful; in those of the uninitiated they are verily like razors grasped by infant fingers.
There are three ailments or more which I hope to treat of in papers succeeding this. One is incipient consumption and its fresh air cure, another rickets and bandy legs, and a third scrofula, a disease of the glands, but, of course, from constitutional causes. Scrofula used to be called King’s Evil; and, although one suffering therefrom may do much good by strict adherence to the laws of health, medical advice should in all cases be sought for.