127 



As before stated, diarrhoea during dentition, unless very ^-vere, should 

 not be stopped; but regarded as an effort of nature to relieve congestion 

 to the head ; and where the opposite effect is the case, purgatives should 

 be avoided, and the bowels regulated by suitable diet ; in obstinate cases 

 bv injections. Constipation in infants may be almost entirely attri- 

 buted to defective diet, and if, while nursing, mothers and nurses would 

 I'ullv jivid any article of food or drink of an indigestible or stimulat- 

 ing character, this ailment would be comparatively unknown. 



WHOOPING-COUGH. 



This disease, almost absolutely confined to infants and children, is, 

 luckily for them, more distressing in its symptoms than dangerous in its 

 ejects, a case of whooping-cough, pur et simple, being rarely fatal. Like 

 croup, it is more common with very young children, the usual age when 

 th-y are more subject to it being from two to ten years; but, unlike 

 croup, it is more common to girls than to boys, and appears but once in a 

 lifetime, though cases have been known were the cough continued dailv 

 ;it a certain hour for several months, and, after ceasing for some time, 

 returned for two successive seasons. 



The symptoms which usually precede this malady are those of ordinary 

 influenza. First and foremost there is a languor, restlessness, feverish - 

 and unaccountable irritation, except that the little one is thought 

 " to have caught a slight cold," then loss of appetite, sneezing, cough in;:, 

 follow, with a running at the nose; this is in the case of an ordinary and 

 not severe attack. Where the disease is in an aggravated form the f- 

 i> more int< -us.-, tin- thirst greater, the pulse quicker, and the oppression 

 and distress in proportion, the cough very frequent and painful, dry at 

 tirst, lut with 61 expectoration afterward. This maybe called the 



iir>t | tli- disease, and is the customary prelude to whooping, but it 



i- pert'eet ly pM^ji.ie to dispense with these 'preliminaries, and for a child 



to be suddenly sei/ed with the too well-known cough. The>e sympt 



uarily continue from ten -lays to a fortnight. 

 Tin. SECOND marked by the dyiu^-out of the symptoms of cold 



and the commencement oi the fits of e.ii^iiin'_r. which an- 1- iu-d 



as a numl.er of expiration^ made with Mich violence, an- i 1 in such 



quick succession, that the child BOemfl almost iii danger of sutl'..catinn. 



The face and neck are swollen and livid, the eyes protruded and full of 



rs ; at length, one or two inspirations are made with similar violence, 



r whooping sound U produced ; a liti 



