TREATMENT OF THRUSH. , 211 



Reubold, whose therapeutical views seem to me the most ra- 

 tional, states " The causal treatment of the disease belongs to 

 the therapeutics of the intestinal tube; parasiticidal remedies 

 alone ought to find a place in the treatment of the thrush. 

 Cleanliness and removing the fungus are no doubt urgently 

 required in many cases, as, for instance, when the fungus is 

 seated on the isthmus faucium ; but surely these are not the only 

 means, as Bednar thinks. (I believe that the absolute con- 

 demnation of the process of wiping off the fungus, and the in- 

 veighing against this custom so often met with in nurseries, is 

 frequently the effect of ignorance, and shows a thorough want of 

 knowledge of the nature of the disease.) Uninjurious parasiti- 

 cidal remedies applicable to the mucous membrane of the mouth 

 are not known. Borax is harmless (Oesterlen and Jorg) ; other 

 metallic astringent salts act against the catarrh itself, when they 

 act favorably. Alkalies which remove acidity have been aban- 

 doned for a long time ; and Berg's theory of acidification loses 

 more and more ground every day. Five grains of sulphate of 

 copper in half an ounce of water is likewise ineffective, according 

 to Reubold. Nitrate of silver was found most effective against 

 diarrhoea in the Wiirzburg Clinic, and a little wine should the 

 child's weakness increase." 



I would urge the use of small doses of iron, as, for instance, lac- 

 tate of iron, together with carbonate and phosphate of lime, or the 

 creosote-water united with the salts of lime, which I have frequently 

 found effective in cases of diarrhoea accompanied by fungi in 

 infants. Solutions of an iron-salt, especially when followed by a 

 small dose of cod-liver oil (10 20 30 gtt. per day in the case 

 of children upwards of one year), were found most effective in 

 removing atrophy and its consequences, and in accelerating con- 

 valescence. 



History. In order to be able to survey the history of this 

 disease it becomes necessary to sum up all that has been said of 

 aphthae, muguet, and thrush, and, above all, to abandon the 

 French mode of dividing it into separate diseases, which are in fact 

 merely gradations of one disease. Robin did not even proceed 

 thus. If we proceed from this point of view and master the 

 entire literature which was collected with great pains by Berg, we 

 may take the following historical view : 



1st period. Period of Hippocrates, who knew and described 



