CONSTIPATION. 



one for night and one for day, and they should be always thoroughly aired and 

 warmed before they are put on. When the child is in bed, it should have the limb 

 kept warm by one or more india-rubber hot- water bottles laid alongside of it. 

 In the next place, the limb should be kept thoroughly well rubbed ; and night and 

 morning the whole limb, and especially the affected muscles, should be systematically 

 shampooed. 



The child should be encouraged to use the limb as much as possible, and, if it 

 nui manage to do so, it should be made to run about, but, if this be not possible, 

 passive movements must be made for it, so as to avoid the risk of joints becoming 

 distorted and tendons stiffened. 



A valuable adjunct to the treatment of these cases is undoubtedly electricity, but 

 to be of any service it must be applied with care and great discrimination, and, above 

 all, with very great patience. The paralysed muscles require to be sedulously worked 

 at often for many months before much result is obtained, but we believe that elec- 

 tricity is the sheet anchor in this disease, and, in fact, the only remedy which is 

 likely to be of much service for the cure of what we termed the residual paralysis. 

 The electrical treatment must not be delayed too long, as is often the case. " A 

 stitch in time saves nine," and the applicability of this proverb to disease is very 

 general. To prevent contraction of muscles, and the consequent deformities, various 

 iron supports, and shoes, and similar appliances have been invented. These are of 

 undoubted service when used with judgment, and with the advice of a reliable 

 surgeon. Their drawback is that they hamper the free movement of the child, and 

 prevent its proper muscular development, and they are rarely justifiable except in 

 where locomotion is scarcely possible without them. We would strongly 

 caution the reader against a class of instrument makers who to the trade of a black- 

 smith endeavour to add the profession of a surgeon. They are ignorant of anatomy 

 and physiology, are incapable of taking other than, a mechanical view of the case, are 

 naturally anxious to sell their often costly wares, and by looking at patients solely 



from their point of view, often condemn them to be crippled for life. 



i 

 Chorea. (See St. Vitus's Dance.) 



Constipation in Children. When a child is constipated, its nurse gives it a dose 

 of purgative medicine as a matter of course, and if this does not have the desired 

 elfect, the remedy is repeated, and in the very great majority of cases no harm comes 

 from this haphazard method of treating a common symptom. It is well, however, 

 that people should bear in mind that constipation may arise from causes which are 

 not only unremovable by purgative drugs, but which might be greatly aggravated 

 l>y their administration. Take rupture, for instance, a complaint which is very 

 common among children. A piece of the bowel comes through a hole in the internal 

 coats of the belly, and cannot get back again becomes strangulated, as the term is. 

 Now the administration of purgatives in such a case could do nothing but harm ; 

 and an examination should always be made, in cases of constipation, of the patient's 

 groins, to see whether or no a rupture exist, and if such be found, a surgeon must 

 be called in without delay. 



Again, the bowels may get twisted inside the belly, and then we get a condition 



