630 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



scrofulous men than scrofulous women married, I am not cer- 

 tain. 



With respect to the influence of parents in producing this dis- 

 ease, it deserves to be remarked, that in a family of many child- 

 ren, when one of the parents has been affected with scrofula, 

 and the other not ; as it is usual for some of the children to be 

 in constitution pretty exactly like the one parent, and others of 

 them like the other ; it commonly happens, that those children 

 who most resemble the scrofulous parent become affected 

 with scrofula, while those resembling the other parent entirely 

 escape. 



MDCCXL. The scrofula generally appears at a particular 

 period of life. It seldom appears in the first, or even in the 

 second year of a child's life ; and most commonly it occurs 

 from the second, or, as some allege, and perhaps more properly, 

 from the third to the seventh year. Frequently, however, it 

 discovers itself at a later period ; and there are instances of its 

 first appearance at every period till the age of puberty ; after 

 which, however, the first appearance of it is very rare. 



MDCCXLI. When it does not occur very early, we can 

 generally distinguish the habit of body peculiarly disposed to 

 it. It most commonly affects children of soft and flaccid ha- 

 bits, of fair hair and blue eyes ; or at least affects these much 

 more frequently than those of an opposite complexion. It af- 

 fects especially children of smooth skins and rosy cheeks ; and 

 such children have frequently a tumid upper lip, with a chop in 

 the middle of it ; and this tumour is often considerable, and ex- 

 tended to the columna nasi and lower part of the nostrils. The 

 disease is sometimes joined with, or follows rickets ; and al- 

 though it frequently appears in children who have not had 

 rickets in any great degree, yet it often attacks those who, 

 by a protuberant forehead, by tumid joints, and a tumid ab- 

 domen, show that they had some rachitic disposition. In pa- 

 rents who, without having had the disease themselves, seem to 

 produce scrofulous children, we can commonly perceive much 

 of the same habit and constitution that has been just now 

 described. 



Some authors have supposed, that the smallpox has a ten- 

 dency to produce this disease ; and Mr. De Haen asserts its 



