DISEASES 01- CHILDREN. 



to a child is a positive injury to it; and, in fact, the giving of drugs at all to children 

 is a harmful proceeding, and is only to be countenanced when it is necessary to avert 

 or counteract some greater evil. The necessity for giving drugs to children would 

 arise much less often than is usually the case if the rules which we shall lay down 

 for the general management of children were more scrupulously attended to. 



The signs of disease in children are different from those we observe in grown-up 

 persons ; and when they cannot talk or definitely complain we have to learn to 

 interpret those numerous indications of disease which are afforded by the child's 

 general demeanour. 



There is no more valuable indication of disease than the temperature of the body. 

 "We do not mean the apparent temperature as tested by the hand, but the actual 

 temperature as measured with a thermometer. A child's pulse may be exceedingly 

 quick, its face may look flushed, and its skin feel -hot, and this may all be due to 

 excitement, and after a night's rest the symptoms which caused alarm may have all 

 disappeared. If, however, we find the temperature of the body raised, we know at 

 least that the child requires careful watching until the temperature goes down 

 again. It is not often possible to say at once to what the rise of temperature is due. 

 It may be caused by indigestion, or a passing cold, or inflammation of the lungs, 

 or bronchitis ; or one of the children's fevers as measles, scarlet fever, &c. may be 

 coming on ; but as long as the temperature is raised we may expect anything. The 

 great advantage of taking the temperature is that it gives us early information of 

 disease, and we are often able to separate a child from its fellows before it has been 

 able to infect the others. We should strongly advise the mothers of families and 

 others who have the care of children to buy a " clinical thermometer," which may 

 be got from any surgical instrument maker, and learn to take a temperature. The 

 proper temperature of the body is 9 8 -4 Fahrenheit, and anything over 99 Fahrenheit 

 must be looked upon as fever. From 99 to 102 we should call slight fever; from 

 102 to 105, severe fever; and anything over 105 Fahrenheit very severe fever. 

 A temperature is best taken by placing the thermometer in the armpit or the mouth 

 (if the child is old enough), and allowing it to remain for two or three minutes. Let 

 us suppose that a child is " out of sorts." We take its temperature, and find it 

 natural ; we know that there is nothing serious the matter, and that it will probably 

 be well in a few hours. If, however, we find the temperature raised, we must be 

 prepared for the advent of something serious, and must not treat the case lightly. 

 We have often .seen the temperature raised by very slight things, such as an 

 indigestible meal; and, in fact, nothing shows the impressionability of childhood so 

 much as the manner in which the temperature rises at slight causes ; but nevertheless 

 we have often been able to get four-and-twenty hours ahead of a disease, as it were, 

 because the thermometer has forewarned us of the impending storm. 



Another important indication of disease in children is " fractiousness," or 

 irritability of temper. Healthy children are generally good, and if we find a child 

 become troublesome, we should always suspect some physical cause for its altered 

 manner. 



Healthy children are, when awake, lively. They smile, and crow, and throw 

 their limbs about in one never-ending round of delight. When a child becomes 



