phtheria is a disease much dreaded during childhood and adolescence.
It may attack any age--even little babies are susceptible. It begins
with a general feeling of heavy, drowsy lassitude with a sore throat.
White spots appear on the tonsils which may resemble a simple
follicular tonsillitis, while in a short time white patches spread
over the throat and tonsils.

It is not at all uncommon for this membrane to attack the nose,
producing a bloody, pustular discharge; and when it does attack the
nose, it is none the less contagious and must be regarded just as
seriously. A physician is called at once, and, not only to the child,
but to the other members of the family, antitoxin is immediately
administered. The disease runs a regular course and its most dangerous
complication is the membrane which forms in the larynx and threatens
to suffocate the child unless prompt intubation is performed--the
slipping of a silver tube in the larynx to prevent suffocation and
death. The early use of antitoxin greatly lessens all these serious
complications.

Care must be exercised to prevent sudden heart failure; and this is
done by raising the child to an upright position with the utmost care;
while you insist upon him lying quietly upon his back or his side,
long after the disease has left his throat. While the throat or nose
is the seat of disease, the toxins from these most dreaded
diphtheritic microbes spread through the lymph channels and the blood
vessels to the heart itself--so weakening that organ that it sometimes
suddenly fails, or becomes more or less crippled for life. These
serious results are to be prevented by the science of good nursing and
the prompt use of antitoxin. In these days the "Schick test" may be
administered for the purpose of ascertaining whether one is
susceptible to contracting diphtheria.

A physician is always in charge of diphtheria, and he will supply
directions for the bowels, the diet, and the sprays for the nose and
throat, and the general well-being of the suffering child. Isolation
and quarantine should continue for two weeks, and in bad cases three
weeks, after the membrane has disappeared from the throat.

WHOOPING COUGH

A child suffering from a continuous cough, particularly if it is
accompanied by a whoop or a condition which is so often seen in
children who cough--not able to stop--should not be taken to church,
nor to the movies, nor allowed to go to school; neither should he be
al