THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



OCTOBER. 1881. 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 



Bt FELIX L. OSWALD, M. D. 

 REMEDIAL EDUCATION (contimced). 



THE vicissitudes necessarily incident to an out-door and primitive 

 mode of life are never the first causes of any disease, though 

 they may sometimes betray its presence. Bi'onchitis, nowadays per- 

 haps the most frequent of all infantile diseases, makes no exception 

 to this rule ; a draught of cold air may reveal the latent progress 

 of the disorder, but its cause is long confinement in a vitiated and 

 overheated atmosphere, and its proper remedy ventilation and a mild, 

 phlegm-loosening (saccharine) diet, warm sweet milk, sweet oatmeal- 

 porridge, or honey -water. Select an airy bedroom and do not be afraid 

 to open the windows ; among the children of the Indian tribes who 

 brave in open tents the terrible winters of the Hudson Bay terri- 

 tory, bronchitis, croup, and diphtheria are wholly unknown ; and what 

 we call "taking cold" might often be more correctly described as 

 taking hot ; glowing stoves, and even open fires, in a night-nursery, 

 greatly aggravate the pernicious eifects of an impure atmosphere. The 

 first paroxysm of croup can be promptly relieved by very simple reme- 

 dies : fresh air and a rapid forward-and-backward movement of the 

 arms, combined in urgent cases with the application of a flesh-brush 

 (or piece of flannel) to the neck and the upper part of the chest. Pare- 

 goric and poppy-sirup stop the cough by lethargizing the irritability 

 and thus preventing the discharge of the phlegm till its accumulation 

 produces a second and far more dangerous paroxysm. These second 

 attacks of croup (after the administration of palliatives) are generally 

 the fatal ones. When the child is convalescing, let him beware of 

 stimulating food and overheated rooms. Do not give aperient medi- 



YOL. XIX. 46 



