DISEASES OF CHILDREN, 



conditions are wholly exceptional and are very rarely met with. The diseases most 

 common to the first dentition are the constitutional diseases : rickets, scrofula, and 

 tuberculosis, which often make themselves manifest at this time. Convulsions and 

 false croup of the spasmodic kind are also liable to occur. It is a period when 

 children require a large amount of attention. 



About the age of six, children begin to prepare for the second set of teeth by 

 shedding the first, and children of this age are generally noticeable for their ragged 

 mouths. There are twelve more teeth in the second than in the first set, or thirty- 

 two in all. The extra teeth, six in each jaw, are inserted at the sides, so that the 

 form of the arch of the teeth is different in the young child and in the adult, being 

 exactly semi- circular in the first instance, and somewhat like a donkey's shoe in 

 the second. These extra teeth consist of two " bicuspids " on each side, which are 

 inserted between the dog teeth and the front grinders, and one wisdom tooth on 

 <-adi side, four in all, which are inserted at the extreme end of the dental arch. 

 The permanent teeth are cut in the following order : The anterior molars at six 

 years, the central permanent incisors at seven years, the lateral incisors at eight 

 years, the anterior bicuspids at nine, and the posterior bicuspids at ten years, the 

 canine at eleven, and the second molars at twelve years. The wisdom teeth, which 

 are the last to appear, are very uncertain in the time of their appearance, and 

 may come at any time between the seventeenth and twenty-fifth year, or even 

 later. The following scheme shows the times of cutting the permanent teeth : 



The second dentition is scarcely so critical a time with children as the first, 

 although certain diseases of the nervous system, such as St. Vitus's dance and 

 epilepsy, are very apt to declare themselves at this time. As to the act of cutting 

 the second teeth, it is veiy rarely that it causes any annoyance or trouble. 



Diarrhcea and Dysentery in Young Children. It must be borne in mind that the 

 bowels of very young children act three or four times in the twenty-four hours, and 

 that the motions are generally loose ; one must not, therefore, rashly conclude that a 

 child is suffering from diarrhcea ; but if a child of less than three months of age has 

 an action of the bowels more than thrice, or one over that age more than twice, in the 

 day and night, we shall not be wrong in concluding that the actions, provided they 

 be not hard, are excessive, and need checking. It too often happens that the first 

 acquaintance which many children make with this world is marked by diarrhoea, 



