side of the
neck, wrung out of hot water and covered with oil-silk or rubber
sheeting, with a bandage to retain it in place.
Paregoric may be given for the same purpose--a tablespoonful for
adults; a teaspoonful for a child of eight to ten, well diluted with
water, and not repeated inside of two hours, and not then unless the
pain continues unabated. Inflammation of the testicles demands rest in
bed, elevation of the testicle on a pillow after wrapping it in a
thick layer of absorbent cotton, or applying hot compresses, as
recommended for the neck. After the first few days of this treatment,
adjust a suspensory bandage, which can be procured at any apothecary
shop, and apply daily the following ointment: guiacol, sixty grains;
lard, one-half ounce, over the swollen testicle.
=WHOOPING COUGH.=--A contagious disease characterized by fits of
coughing, during which a whooping or crowing sound is made following a
long-drawn breath. Whooping cough is generally taken through direct
contact with the sick, rarely through exposure to the sick room, or to
persons or clothing used by the sick. The germ which causes the
disease is probably in the mucus of the nose and throat. Whooping
cough is usually more or less prevalent in all thickly settled
civilized communities, at times is epidemic, and often follows
epidemics of measles. It occurs chiefly in children from six months to
six years of age. Girls and all weak and delicate subjects are
slightly more susceptible to the disease. Some children are naturally
immune to whooping cough. One attack usually protects against another.
=Development.=--A variable period elapses between the time of exposure
to whooping cough and the appearance of the first symptoms. This may
be from two days to two weeks; usually seven to ten days.
=Symptoms.=--Whooping cough begins like an ordinary cold in the head,
with cough, worse at night, which persists. The coughing fits increase
and the child gets red in the face, has difficulty in getting its
breath during them, and sometimes vomits when the attack is over.
After a variable period, from a few days to two weeks from the
beginning of the cough, the peculiar feature of the disease appears.
The child gives fifteen or twenty short coughs without drawing breath,
the face swells and grows blue, the eyeballs protrude, the veins stand
out, and the patient appears to be suffocating, when at last he draws
in a long breath with a crowing or whooping so
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