RICKETS. 3J 



Mn-aming down its lace. " Take it away, take it away ! That thing! There 

 it is ! there it is!'' are probably the terrified expressions to which the child gives 

 utterance, ami perhaps it points to some gown or curtain which, hanging on a peg, 

 and half illumined by the moonlight, has been mistaken for one of the ogres or bogies 

 with tales of which its nurse lias filled its infant mind. The child at first refuses 

 to be comforted, and in spite of the presence of light and of friends, it is still 

 apprehensive that something is wrong. The mother should sit by its bed, hold its 

 hand, and talk to it, and its mind being diverted from that which caused it alarm, it 

 will not be long before it falls asleep again. These troubles do not occur more than 

 once during the night, but they are very apt to recur at the same hour every night. 

 They need not, as a rule, cause alarm. They are seldom the precursors of fits, or 

 epilepsy, or of any serious trouble, and they are usually to be attributed to some 

 difficulty in digestion, or to some error in feeding. The child has probably made 

 its first acquaintance with nightmare, and has seen in its dreams some weird face, 

 with many varieties of which we become acquainted as we grow older. Nightmare 

 will cause an adult to wake with a start, and with a feeling of devout thankfulness 

 that "it was only a dream," and it is not to be wondered at that children should fail 

 to put the proper interpretation upon these alarming apparitions of our sleeping 

 hours. Children who suffer thus often require a dose of mild aperient medicine, 

 such as Gregory's powder, or rhubarb and soda, and if this be given, and care be taken 

 that its last meal is of a light and digestible nature, these night terrors will cease to 

 be a trouble to the child or its parents. 



Red Gum. This is a very common disease among children from birth until the 

 completion of the first dentition. It is technically known as strophulus, and consists 

 of a sprinkling of pimples or papules irregularly scattered over the body. The 

 pimples are usually small, about the size of a pin's head, and are occasionally the 

 seat of troublesome itching. The eruption is of small importance. It sometimes 

 depends upon slight derangement of the stomach, and occasionally is attributable to 

 the irritation of dentition. 



The treatment is almost nil. The child's diet must be supervised, and, if 

 necessary, a dose of carbonate of soda is to be given, or a little lime water may be 

 added to the milk. 



Rickets. This is a disease which every one who is much brought in contact with 

 children should endeavour to understand. It is very common in London and other 

 large English towns, and has been called on the Continent the " English disease." 

 Its main features are a softness of the bones, and a general muscular and constitu- 

 tional weakness. The softness of the bones leads to deformities of the limbs, chest, 

 and back, and most of the crooked-limbed cripples and dwarfs that we see in this 

 country have been the victims of rickets. There is another disease occurring in adult 

 life which is characterised by softness of the bones, but that is quite different from 

 rickets, which is a disease limited to childhood. Children are not born rickety, but 

 the symptoms appear during the completion of the first dentition (between the 

 seventh and twenty-fourth month). The child appears not to be well; it is irritable 

 and languid, and does not care for its food. The motions from the bowels are 



