

SCROFULA. 47 



evil " is still occasionally applied in country districts to some of the manifestations of 

 the disease. 



The chilil n -n who are the victims of scrofulosis differ widely in appearance from 

 the tubercular children. Instead of being lithe, active, and elegant, they are heavy- 

 looking and lymphatic, -with muddy complexions, thick skins, coarse straggling hair, 

 and clumsy limbs. The tubercular children are pretty, the scrofulous children are 

 ugly, and the rickety children are deformed. The tendencies of the scrofulous 

 constitution are of a peculiar kind, and are quite distinct from those of the other two 

 constitutional conditions with which it may be confounded. 



There is a liability to enlargement of the lymphatic glands at slight causes, 

 or from no obvious cause. The glands under the jaw and at the side of the neck 

 are very liable to enlarge, and the irritation of cutting teeth or a slight cold in 

 the throat are quite sufficient to cause great enlargement of the glands. The 

 enlargement may only be slight, and the gland may feel like an almond or 

 olive beneath the skin, but it may be so great as to cause the most terrible 

 deformities, and completely obliterate the proper lines of the face, and cause the 

 unhappy child to look terribly ugly and ghoulish. The mere enlargement of the 

 glands is very trying both to the patient and the friends ; but when the glands 

 suppurate, as they often do, and leave scars which last a lifetime, the annoyance is 

 increased. 



Besides the enlargement of the glands, the patients are liable to inflammation of 

 the eyes, which is often very difficult to cure. The edges of. the eyelids get reddened 

 and much inflamed, and little ulcers form on the eyes themselves. This causes 

 a copious discharge from the eyes and lids, with a gluing together of the eyelids 

 after sleep, a matting together of the eyelashes, and also a great intolerance of 

 light. 



Diseases of the skin are likewise very common among scrofulous children, and 

 they are liable to get chafed in places where folds of skin come in contact, 

 to suffer from watery discharges behind the ears and on other parts of the body 

 (eczema], and there is a tendency also to the different varieties of scald head. (See 

 Scald Head.} 



They are often troubled also with discharges from the nose and ears, and 

 the digestion is often bad from a chronic inflammatory condition of the stomach. 

 The joints are often the seat of chronic inflammations, which not unfrequently 

 endure for years, and ultimately wear the patient out with exhaustion. " White 

 swellings " of the knee are most common in the scrofulous constitution. Diseases of 

 the hip and ankle joints are also of frequent occurrence. 



Occasionally these children die with symptoms not unlike those of acute 

 tuberculosis (see Tuberculosis), and we get diarrhoea, general inflammation of the 

 bowels accompanied by tenderness (peritonitis), and in some instances a deposit 

 of tubercles may take place in the lungs or on the membranes of the brain. This, 

 however, is rare, and when it does occur it must be regarded as a grafting of 

 tuberculosis on the scrofulous constitution. 



The treatment of scrofula has undergone great changes in modern times. This 

 was the disease over which the sovereigns of England were supposed to exercise 



