t this precaution.

It will suffice to mention the fact that _diabetes_, though very rare,
may yet occur in childhood, and that as a rule it is more dangerous in
childhood than in the grown person. Whenever a child loses flesh without
obvious cause, suffers much from thirst, and at the same time passes
urine in greater abundance than in health, the possibility that it may
suffer from diabetes must be borne in mind.

Of far greater frequency than any other affection of the kidney is that
in which the child passes _gravel_ with the urine, either in the form of
a reddish-white sediment, which collects at the bottom of the vessel as
the urine cools, or of minute glistening red particles, which resemble
grains of cayenne pepper.

These deposits, when abundant in the male child, have a tendency to
collect in the bladder, and there to form a stone. This painful disease,
too, is so much more frequent in childhood than at a later age, that
more than a third--indeed, nearly half--of all the operations for stone
performed in English hospitals are done on boys under ten years old.

Even when this grave consequence does not follow the presence of gravel
in the kidneys, and its passage into the bladder, it is often
accompanied with much suffering. The pain is like that of stomach-ache
or colic, the child crying and drawing up its legs on every attempt to
pass water, which sometimes is voided only in a few drops at a time, and
now and then is completely suppressed for some hours. The very acute
form of the ailment seldom occurs, except in infants who inherit from
their parents a disposition to gouty or rheumatic affections. In them,
however, a trifling cold, slight disorder of the digestion, a state of
constipation, or the feverishness and general irritation which sometimes
attend on teething, not infrequently produce these deposits and give
rise to all these painful symptoms, the deposit disappearing and the
pain ceasing so soon as the brief constitutional disturbance subsides.

The very acute attacks seldom occur after the first two years of life,
but similar symptoms, though less severe, are by no means unusual in
older children, and continue to recur from very trifling causes,
especially from errors in diet and disorders of digestion.

In spite of the suffering which for the time attends it, there is no
cause for anxiety with reference to the issue of each attack. The warm
bath, a castor oil aperient, and soothing medicine so