VACCINATION. 129 



IT is A COMPLAINT which lends itself a great deal more to careful nurs- 

 ing than to an elaborate course of medicine, for it will run its course, and 

 requires guiding and watching more than checking, great care being 

 necessary to note the symptoms, lest they assume a conspicuous or alarm- 

 ing character, and by appropriate treatment prevent the affection having 

 those complications alluded to which constitute it a disease of danger. 

 On the slightest appearance either of inflammatory affection of the lungs 

 or of a tendency to convulsion a medical man should be sent for immedi- 

 ately. 



During the first stage an emetic of ipecacuanha, followed by an expec- 

 torant every four hours, should be given, the latter consisting of 

 ipecacuanha wine, sirup of squills, a little sirup of white poppies and 

 almond milk, and some mild aperient, such as castor oil, or salts and senna, 

 the emetic only to be repeated occasionally. The rooms to which the 

 child should be confined should be of an equable temperature, about sixty- 

 five degrees, the bedroom being ventilated during the day and the sitting- 

 room during the night ; but the windows of the apartment must on no 

 account be opened while the patient is in them. 



When the second stage arrives, while proper attention is paid to tem- 

 perature, the cough will be found much slighter and the expectoration 

 much less than if the child were permitted to be exposed to the external 

 air, the emetic being continued occasionally, and also the mixture, with a 

 few drops of laudanum added to it 



WITH REGARD TO CHANGE OF AIR, there is no doubt that while the at- 

 tack is unsubdued, no matter what the weather may be, the patient should 

 onfined not only to the house, but to rooms, as already stated, but 

 when the disease is on the wane the change from a cold situation to one of 

 warm temperature is most beneficial in accelerating a return to con- 

 valescence, though the greatest caution is needed in this matter. 



The diet of the child during the entire illness is a most important 



featun- in connection with the treatment, and should consist chiefly of 



milk and farinaceous foods, meat being of too heating a nature, unless tin- 



child is v-ry weak and low, in which case tolerably good broth will be the 



modi* of -ivim: animal food. 



VACCINATION. 



Unfortunately that dangerous and much dreaded malady smallpox 

 rovalent, and it would be well for parents and others to be reinin 

 of the necessity of revaccination every seven years. 

 I 



