DISEASES OF CHILDREN". 



necessary. The dose must be small to begin with, and then may be gradually and 

 cautiously increased. A pill containing a quarter of a grain or less of the extract of 

 belladonna (which should be purchased of some druggist of acknowledged reputation) 

 should be administered every night at bedtime, and if this be found insufficient, the 

 dost- may at the end of a week be doubled. If the child complain of thirst, and the 

 pupils of its eyes become dilated, the remedy must not be pushed too far; if delirium 

 occur, the belladonna must be withheld. The general health of the child must be 

 carefully looked to. 



Chufaiy. In situations where the folds of skin in young children are in close 

 contact and overlap, as in the folds of the groin and the root of the neck, they rub 

 together and chafe, and cause an irritable and inflamed state to be engendered. This 

 condition is technically known as intertr'ujo. It is rarely that it arises from chafing 

 pure and simple, but the condition is predisposed to by a want of attention to 

 cleanliness; and the collection of perspiration and other secretions in the moist folds 

 of skin is often largely answerable for the mischief. The treatment of chafing is 

 s ini [tie. The parts must be kept scrupulously clean, and be washed twice a day 

 witli warm soap and water. After washing, they must be thoroughly dried with a 

 soft towel or a silk handkerchief. The part must then be thoroughly dusted with an 

 absorbent powder, such as starch, or oxide of zinc, or fuller's earth. The health of 

 the patient must at the same time receive attention, as chafing is far more likely to 

 occur in sickly than in healthy children. 



Chicken Pox is a mild general disease, through which most children pass once. 

 It is said to be very contagious, and the incubitive period is alleged to be a 

 fortnight the same, in fact, as small pox. As a rule, the sufferer is scarcely ill, but 

 occasionally there is evidence of slight febrile disturbance, such as chilliness, quickness 

 of pulse, loss of appetite, and some elevation of temperature. On the second or 

 third day after the onset of febrile symptoms (supposing them to be noticeable), a few 

 rose-coloured spots appear about the body, and these quickly become vesicles or little 

 watery heads. They increase in number for two or three days, and we find the body 

 eo\ -en-d with a variable quantity of these little watery bladders which may number 

 as many as 150 in bad cases, and the child looks as if it had been exposed to a 

 si lower of scalding water. They come about equally on all parts of the body with a 

 slight excess occasionally on the head. In extreme cases a succession of them may 

 appear for eight or ten days. The individual vesicles last three- or four days, and 

 then begin to dry up, and as they diy they leave a little scab. They often itch 

 badly, and the child often scratches itself scratches off the scabs and produces sore 

 places which may prove troublesome. This disease has to be distinguished from the 

 far graver malady, which in some degree resembles it viz., small pox. In small pox 

 the premonitory symptoms are far more severe, and the patient appears to be 

 extremely ill with headache, vomiting, and violent pain in the back (see Small Pox). 

 The eruption in small pox appears first 011 the face, and, before it becomes pustular, 

 there is a stage during which it feels like a hard lump or " shot " beneath the skin. 

 This stage is absent as a rule in chicken pox. The eruption of small pox always 



