ed, is often followed by an aggravation which is
apt to be attributed to his well-meant prescription. The harm done by
examinations, which are specially calculated to appeal to the child's
imagination, as, for instance, an X-ray examination, is often clearly
apparent. I remember a schoolboy of thirteen who was sent to me
because he had constantly complained of severe abdominal pain. He was
a nervous child with a habit spasm, the son of a highly neurotic
father and an overanxious mother. An X-ray examination was made, but
showed nothing amiss. The child's interest and preoccupation in the
examination was painfully obvious. That night his restraint broke down
altogether, and he screamed with pain, declaring that it had become
insupportable. Younger children, less imaginative but equally
perverse, noticing how anxiously their mothers view their symptoms,
will often make complaint merely to attract attention and to excite
expressions of pity or condolence. Sometimes they will enforce their
will by an appeal to their symptoms. I have had a little patient of no
more than thirteen months of age who suffered severely and for a long
time from eczema, and who in this way used his affliction to ensure
that he got his own way. If he was not given what he wanted
immediately he would fall to scratching, with an expression upon his
face which could not be mistaken. To him, poor child, the grown-up
people around seemed possessed of but one desire--to stop his
scratching; and he had learnt that if he showed himself determined to
scratch they would give way on every other point.

The ill-effects of departing too readily from ordinary nursery routine
on account of a little illness, and of adopting straightway a variety
of measures of treatment, is well shown in cases of asthma in
children. The asthmatic child is almost always of a highly nervous
temperament, and often passionate and ungovernable. Often the most
effective treatment of an attack, which usually comes on some hours
after going to bed, is to make little of it, to talk naturally and
calmly to the child, to turn on the light, and to allow him, if he
will, to busy himself with toys or books. To be seized with panic, to
send post-haste for the doctor, to carry the patient to the open
window, to burn strong-smelling vapours, and so forth, not only is apt
to prolong the nervous spasm on this occasion, but makes it likely
that a strong impression will be left in his mind which by
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