FACIAL EXPRESSION
The expression of the face varies with the disease. In whooping cough and measles the face is swollen and somewhat flushed, giving the child a heavy, stupid expression. There is also swelling of the face, especially about the eyes, in Bright's disease. Repeated momentary crossing of the eyes often indicates approaching convulsions. In very severe acute diarrhea it is astonishing with what rapidity the face will become sunken and shriveled, and so covered with deep lines that the baby is almost unrecognizable. The same thing occurs more slowly in the condition commonly known as marasmus. Often the face has an expression of distress in the beginning of any serious disease. If the edges of the nostrils move in and out with breathing, we may suspect some difficulty of respiration, such as attends pneumonia. The baby sleeps with its eyes half open in exhausted conditions or when suffering pain.
THE HEAD
The head exhibits certain noteworthy features. Excessive perspiration when sleeping is an early symptom of rickets. It must be remembered, however, that any debilitated child may perspire more or less when asleep. Both in rickets and in hydrocephalus (water on the brain) the face seems small and the head large, but in the former the head is square and flat on top, while in the latter it is of a somewhat globular shape. The fontanelle is prominent and throbs forcibly in inflammation of the brain, is too large in rickets and hydrocephalus, bulges in the latter affection, and sometimes sinks in conditions with only slight debility.
THE CHEST
The chest exhibits a heaving movement with a drawing in of the spaces between the ribs in any disease in which breathing is difficult. A chicken-breasted chest is seen in Pott's disease of the spine, and to some extent in bad cases of enlargement of the tonsillar tissue; a "violin-shaped" chest in rickets; a bulging of one side in pleurisy with fluid; and a long, narrow chest, with a general flattening of the upper part, in older children predisposed to consumption.
THE ABDOMEN
The abdomen is swollen and hard in colic. It is also much distended with gas in rickets, and is constantly so in chronic indigestion in later childhood. It is usually much sunken in inflammation of the brain or in severe exhausting diarrhea or marasmus. It may be distended with liquid in some cases of dropsy.
THE CRY
The study of the cry furnishes one of the most valuable means of learning what ails a baby. A persistent cry may be produced by the intense, constant itching of eczema.