SCROFULA. 831 



of chyle, and where apprehensions are entertained that the oil may 

 aggravate the intestinal disorder. When used in appropriate cases, we 

 prize the efficacy of cod-liver oil, with acorn-coffee, and walnut-tea, most 

 highly, although we strongly deprecate its indiscriminate employment 

 in every form of scrofula ; but, as it is requisite that its exhibition 

 should be long continued in order to produce favorable results, certain 

 rales for its administration must be laid down. The disgust for the 

 oil, which in adults is sometimes invincible, is soon overcome by chil- 

 dren, who generally speedily cease to fight against the customary dose 

 of two teaspoonfuls daily, and even ask for it themselves when the 

 period for its administration has expired. But, if the treatment be 

 kept up for months without occasional intermission, an unconquerable, 

 and then too generally a permanent aversion to the disgusting medi- 

 cine will arise, even among children, so that vomiting and retching 

 ensue after every attempt to force it down. This awkward occurrence, 

 which often renders further treatment futile, may nearly always be 

 avoided by interrupting the " cure " for a week or a fortnight after 

 continuing it for four or six weeks. In order to make children take 

 the acorn-coffee as willingly as real coffee, it is sufficient to add a few 

 coffee-beans to the acorns before roasting them. 



It is far more difficult to furnish definite instructions for the use of 

 the brine-baths, whose anti-scrofulous virtues enjoy a reputation almost 

 as great as that of cod-liver oil. We know too little about the action 

 of these baths, and about the effect which they produce upon nutri- 

 tion, and the advantages derived from the salt, iodine, and bromine, 

 which they contain, to enable us to determine upon theoretical princi- 

 ples where they are indicated and where they are unlikely to do good. 

 A calm analysis of the positive and negative effects of brine-baths in 

 scrofula, which would be the best means of obtaining fixed indications 

 for their use, has not, as yet, been made ; and the doctors at the baths, 

 who certainly ought to be the best judges of the extent and limits of 

 their healing powers, rarely send away a scrofulous patient as unfit to 

 use the brine. Hence, there is no resource but to send persons, who 

 have in vain tried cod-liver oil and other anti-scrofulous remedies, to 

 Kreutznach, Ischl, Kosen, or Wittekind, or some similar watering- 

 place, in the hope that they may be among those to whom the baths 

 will exhibit their anti-scrofulous virtues, which are by no means illu- 

 sory ; and, if the circumstances of the patients do not admit of this, 

 they must use artificial brine-baths at home. 



In recent times the cold-water cure has earned for itself a most 

 favorable reputation as a remedy for scrofula ; and, indeed, a series of 

 cases is on record in which complete and perfect cures have been ob- 

 tained by these means, after all other modes of treatment had been 



