ery livid; the hands clenched, and the thumbs drawn into
the palms; the head hot, and marked fits of drowsiness and languor; and
the child, during sleep, screaming out, or grinding its teeth,--
something wrong about the head ought to be anticipated. Of the
treatment we have here nothing to say, except that the gums must be
carefully examined, and scarified if they require it, and the
temperature of the head reduced by cold sponging, or the application of
a bag of ice when necessary. The chief duty, however, of the parent is
to be alive to these symptoms, and early to detect the incipient
mischief, that by a prompt application of efficient means the accession
of so formidable a malady may be prevented.
To specific remedies for this disease it is scarcely necessary to
allude, after what has been advanced, except by way of warning. In the
simple form of the complaint such medicines are superfluous, or rather
some of them, from their violent properties, most dangerous; in the
complicated forms of the disease they are inadmissible.
The indiscriminate use of purgatives, also, a parent should avoid.
Bowel affections are not an infrequent attendant upon hooping-cough,
and always aggravate the primary disorder.
Of external applications all that need be said is this, that if they
are not violently stimulating they do no harm; if, however, they
contain tartar emetic, in addition to their doing no good to the
disease, they cause unnecessary suffering to the patient, and are
sometimes productive of dangerous and even fatal sores.
Sect. IX.--CROUP.
This disease is one of the most formidable of childhood; sudden
(generally) in its attacks, most active in its progress, and if not
met by a prompt and decided treatment, fatal in its termination. Hence
the paramount importance of parents being acquainted with the signs
which indicate its approach, that medical aid may be secured at the
very onset of the disease. Upon this early application of suitable
remedies every thing depends.
SIGNS OF ITS APPROACH.--Croup may appear in one of two ways: either
preceded for two or three days by the symptoms of a common cold,
accompanied with hoarseness and a rough cough; or it may attack with
the most alarming suddenness, during the night for instance, although
the child had been merry and well the previous evening.
Hoarseness, however, is the premonitory and important symptom of
croup; for although it is not every hoarseness t
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