polish, while the swelling
of the lids lessens, and they can be opened with less difficulty; their
inner surface at the same time becomes softer, but thick and granular,
and next the eyes themselves put on likewise a granular condition which
obscures vision. The discharge by this time has become thicker and
white, and looks like matter from an abscess. By slow degrees the
inflammation may subside, the discharge lessen, the swelling diminish,
and the eye in the course of weeks may regain its natural condition. But
the danger is--and when proper treatment is not adopted early the danger
is very great--lest the mischief should extend beyond the surface of the
eye, lest ulceration of the eye should take place, the ulceration reach
so deep as to perforate it, and not merely interfere with the sight, but
destroy the organ of vision altogether.

In every instance, then, in which the eyelids of a new-born infant
swell, or the slightest discharge appears from them, the attention of
the doctor must at once be called to the condition. In the meantime, and
during whatever treatment he may think it right to follow, the eye must
be constantly covered with a piece of folded lint dipped in cold water;
and every hour at least the eye must be opened and tepid water squeezed
into it abundantly from a sponge held above, but not touching it, so as
to completely wash away all the discharge. A weak solution of alum and
zinc, as one grain of the latter to three of the former to an ounce of
water, may in like manner be dropped from a large camel's-hair brush
four times a day into the eye after careful washing. Simple as these
measures are they yet suffice, if adopted at the very beginning, and
carried on perseveringly, to entirely cure in a few days an ailment
which if let alone leads almost always to most lamentable results.

I do not pursue the subject further, for bad cases require all the care
of the most skilful oculist for their treatment.

=Scalp Swellings.=--Almost every new-born child has on one or other side
of its head a puffy swelling, owing to the pressure to which the head
has been subjected in birth, and this swelling disappears at the end of
twenty-four or forty-eight hours.

Now and then, however, though indeed very seldom, the swelling does not
disappear, but it goes on gradually increasing and becoming more
definite in its outlines until at the end of three or four days it may
be as big as half a small orange, or sometimes