66 



Case of a little Boy aged 9. 



HISTORY : This was a little boy, of 9, whose family had 

 formerly resided in India, but had returned to England, and 

 were living in a provincial town. The patient, his parents, 

 and his brothers and sisters, had all had malarial fever and 

 still suffered from the after-effects, the father and mother 

 complaining of sluggish liver and kidneys, weak digestion, 

 and " nerves." 



When 16 months old, he had a severe attack of " inflamma- 

 tory diarrhoea/ This was treated with strong, astringent 

 remedies ; but the child's life was despaired of, and further 

 medical advice had to be procured before he recovered from 

 the acute attack. Since then, the child had always been 

 weakly and delicate ; and had not made the progress which 

 his parents anticipated from his robust appearance as an 

 infant. 



When about 2J years old, he had what was believed to be 

 colic ; and, later, was said to be seriously affected by malaria. 

 In fact, he was always under the doctor's care, and took 

 tonics for years. 



At the present time, he was described as nervous, irritable, 

 and peevish ; had great difficulty in going to sleep, often lying 

 awake a quarter of an hour at night ; and his sleep was 

 disturbed and restless. His appetite was bad, and he disliked 

 meat. 



His muscles, particularly those of the head, arms, and 

 shoulders, twitched violently, with a weird effect, which gave 

 the impression that he intended to throw himself forward, 

 especially on waking in the morning. He was undersized ; 

 and was backward in his school work. His governess ascribed 

 this to dulness ; but his mother declared that he was, natur- 

 ally, the sharpest of her children. He suffered from flatulence ; 

 and was costive at times. 



This child had had an almost endless variety of prescriptions, 

 of which only a few need be quoted here : 



$. Calomel gr. j 



Sodii Bicarb, gr. ij 



Ft. pulv. To be taken as directed. 

 U . Santonin, gr. ij 

 Ft. pulv. To be taken at bedtime. 



