26  CULPEPRER'’s ENGLISH PHYSICIAN, 
When the futires or-joining feams of the bead continue to long open, it is 
thought a bad fign. ‘In this cafe it is ufual to rub the head often with a little warm, 
~ ram or brandy, mixed with the-white of an ega, and palm oil; a red cloth being. 
conftantly worn over the part. But, when this diforder proceeds from a colle€tion 
of water in the head, it muft be cured by iffues in the neck, perpetual blifters, and 
purgatives. A purgativediet-drink may be made of rhubarb and fweet fennel feeds, 
to be drunk.daily. ‘When there is a diforder dire@ly oppofite to this, called bead- 
mould foot, which fignifies. a too clofe locking of.the futures, it is ufually age to 
nature, as admitting of no help from medicine. fob 
Breakings-out in children, when they are fuperficial, contain a thin yellow mat- 
ter, and leave the fkin beneath red when the {cabs fall off, are rather falutary than 
hurtful. It is cuftomary, however, to. purge with a few grains of rhubarb, and 
anoint the puftules with cream, or oil of almonds, or extract of Saturn, commonly 
called Goulard. A little bafilicon likewife, fpread thin upon lint, has been found 
ufeful ; and the body fhould be kept open. But; when thefe cafes grow inveterate 
and ftubborn, there can be no fafer. method;than a courfe of Aiithiop’ $ mineral and 
thubarb. | 
. Lhe rickets i ‘is a diforder of the ‘bones of children, caufing a baadking out or 
crookednefs thereof, Ir may be occafioned by fwathing a child too tight in fome 
places, and teo loofe in others ; by placing it in an inconvenient, or too often in 
the fame, pofture ; fuffering i itto be long wet; not -giving it proper motien, or 
ufing it fo one arm only: . It may alfo be owing to the parents, or fome defe& in 
the digeftive faculty, or a vifcidity of the blood. But the moft evident caufe of the 
rickets, isthe violence done tothe body by, preffure or {wathing, while the bones are 
but in a cartaliginous ftate.. Add to this, external injury by falls, blows, difloca- 
_ tions, or fractures, which fpecies fometimes brings on an afthma, confumption, or 
| ‘okdoels of the back. Upon the firft Sige of this dilate, which ufually 
‘Knott aye thefe rT HE continue. long, a + dificulty of breathing.” 
t r eric fever, come on; the belly fwells, the pulfe grows weak, and. 
the child’s life i is in dang “8 The rickets is moft commonly cured, when taken ia 
: time, and while the cela se young Bat, if it continues lan, the patient gene-, 
rally 
