50 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 



Harrogate. A grain, or even two, of the salt may be dissolved in a small quantity of 

 water, and given twice or thrice a day. Great care must be taken that the odour of 

 the salt has not evaporated. The taste is not so nauseous as the smell, and if the 

 nose be held, children will take it without difficulty. Glandular swellings often 

 disappear rapidly under this treatment. 



Change of air is often indispensable, and the east coast of England has acquired a 

 deserved reputation for the cure of these cases. Margate, and the other towns in 

 that neighbourhood, are much frequented by scrofulous children ; and the Royal Sea 

 Bathing Infirmary at Margate has conferred a great boon upon necessitous sufferers 

 from scrofula. 



Sore Throat and Gold. These conditions are often combined, and it may be said 

 that those forms of sore throat which accompany an ordinary cold, are seldom of a 

 severe character. Added to the running at the eyes and nose, there is often huski- 

 ness and dryness of the throat, and some difficulty of swallowing ; and if the throat 

 be inspected, it will be seen to be somewhat swollen and reddened. This condition 

 generally subsides with the cold, and proves to be only a passing trouble, and the 

 treatment for the cold is sufficient to cure the throat. If, after the subsidence of the 

 cold the throat remains sore, and especially if the child spits up or coughs up any 

 streaks of blood, it may be a question whether the throat has not drifted into a con- 

 dition of chronic inflammation, and it may be laid down as a rule, that any persis- 

 tent condition of sore throat, hoarseness, or huskiness, is one which should receive 

 careful professional attention. Although sore throat and cold are sometimes com- 

 bined, they more often occur separately, so that it will be well to discuss the two 

 questions seriatim. 



Sore Throat is a symptom of many and various conditions. Thus we have the sore 

 throat due to cold ; acute enlargement of the tonsils with or without the formation 

 of abscesses, constituting the condition known as tonsillitis, or quinsy ; and chronic 

 enlargement of the tonsils without inflammation, which is a common occurrence in 

 weakly or scrofulous children. Sore throat is also often the first symptom of many 

 dangerous conditions, such as croup, diphtheria, and scarlet fever, and it is generally 

 a prominent symptom in measles, German measles, small-pox, and other fevers. 



It becomes necessary, therefore, to be able to distinguish between these various 

 conditions, and in order to do so one must know what is to be seen and what is to 

 be looked for in the throat itself. When the mouth is opened we usually see the 

 arches of the teeth, the roof of the mouth, and the tongue, the two latter meeting 

 and obstructing any further view. If the tongue be depressed by means of a tongue- 

 depresser or the handle of a spoon, and if, as we depress the tongue, we ask the 

 patient to take a full breath we are enabled to see the throat itself. Stretching across 

 the back of the throat is the curtain of the soft palate, from the middle of which 

 there hangs the uvula, a fleshy pendulous body, about a quarter of an inch long. On 

 either side the soft palate is seen to split, as it were, into two parts, by which it is 

 attached to the sides of the mouth. These two parts, called the anterior and posterior 

 " pillars of the fauces," include between them the tonsil, a body the size of a hazel- 

 nut, with a slightly dimpled surface. The arrangement of the parts may be compared 



