40 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 



they should be light and easy, and not such as will tax the child's physical or mental 

 strength in any way. A considerable time should be spent every day in the open 

 air, and much benefit may be derived from the daily use of a cold douche bath. 

 This should be taken before a fire if the weather be chilly, and it is often a good plan 

 to let the child stand in warm water and pour the cold over it. The douche should 

 be followed by gentle frictions with a rough towel. 



For the movements themselves, the best cure is some form of drilling, and such 

 children are particularly benefited by "deportment lessons." They should be made to 

 practise rhythmical exercises with their limbs, and if these exercises be done, as they 

 ought to be, to the sound of well-timed music, the good results will be more marked 

 and quicker in appearing. In the Middle Ages in Italy the bite of a certain spider 

 the tarantula was supposed to give rise to a disease, doubtless of the same type as 

 the chorea of our times, and this disease was said to be cured by the execution of a 

 certain dance, which derived its name from the tarantula itself. We fully believe 

 the accounts we have heard of this disorder, and we believe also that well-timed 

 rhythmical movements are powerful in the alleviation of St. Vitus' dance. 



If medicines be given, it is with one or two objects, either to improve the general 

 health, or to calm the movement. For the former purposes, cod liver oil, iron, 

 sulphate of zinc, quinine, arsenic, mix vomica, and strychnine have been used. Some 

 physicians, having regard to the close and curious relationship which this disease 

 has to rheumatism, have advised the administration of alkaline medicines, such as 

 carbonate of potash, but such treatment is of doubtful efficacy. If the child cannot 

 sleep, we must help it to do so by artificial means. The inhalation of a little 

 chloroform, or the giving of a little hydrate of chloral at bedtime is of great service, 

 as is also the bromide of potassium, or even opium or morphia in small quantities. 

 Such dangerous remedies, however, must only be given when prescribed by a medical 

 man. Strong narcotic drugs ought to have no place in the domestic medicine chest. 

 Bromide of potassium and belladonna may help to subdue the movement during the 

 daytime, and these medicines may be combined with the tonics. 



Scald' Head. This is a vulgar name which is applied to two or three distinct 

 diseases of the scalp which resemble each other superficially. It is most common 

 among scrofulous children. It not unfrequently commences as a slight redness 

 with little watery heads which weep. This occurs in patches, and a very favourite 

 situation is behind tne ears, whence it creeps upwards towards the scalp, and 

 sometimes completely covers it. The proper name for this form of the complaint is 

 eczema of the scalp. The watery heads, which discharge a clear sticky fluid, are the 

 characteristic features, and the discharge running amongst the hairs glues them 

 together, and converts the child's head into a most revolting and loathsome mass. 



If the child's head be irritated by the presence of lice, we get, instead of the clear 

 discharge from the watery heads of eczema, a yellow mattery discharge from pustules, 

 and the matter discharging and drying cakes the hair into masses, and covers the 

 scalp with a hard yellow skull-cap. This disease is known as impetigo of the scalp. 

 It is particularly liable to occur in children of weak constitution, and, the children 

 being usually scrofulous, the irritation of the inflamed scalp is sufficient to cause 



