WATER ON THE BRAIN. G9 



small pox may be the starting-point of an epidemic which, if it spare the unconscious 

 child who is tlmfoms et oriyo, may nevertheless be a source of mourning for many a 

 .surviving parent. 



It is true that children are occasionally ill after vaccination, and that just this 

 ,| .ie., the first six months of life is that which is most fatal to children in 

 general, and that in which constitutional maladies are very apt to show themselves. 

 It is also true that the slight disturbance caused by vaccination is occasionally 

 sufficient in delicate subjects to determine the appearance of eruptions on the head or 

 skin, just as a common cold, or any trifling disturbance, would occasion them ; but 

 our experience has been that the vast majority of troubles which have been ignorantly 

 alleged by mothers to be caused by vaccination could not by any possibility of means 

 have had any connection with it, although they may have nearly coincided in the 

 matter of time. 



The treatment of local troubles which may occasionally occur in the arm after 

 vaccination is simple enough. If the arm gets painful, and the glands in the armpit 

 become tender after the eighth day, the arm should be carried in a sling, and if 

 there be much swelling or redness round the punctures, warm and moist applications 

 will be found to give relief ; at the same time the bowels and digestive functions may 

 want attention. Care must be taken that the child does not scratch the punctures, 

 which often itch considerably when they are healing, and equal care must be taken 

 that they are not rubbed or irritated by the dress. It is often a good plan to cover 

 them with a piece of soft rag on which a little cold cream has been spread. This may 

 be covered with some soft cotton wool, and the whole retained by means of a 

 bandage. In this way all irritation will be reduced to a minimum, and any risk of 

 the dress sticking to the sores will be obviated. Do not pick off the scabs, but allow 

 them to loosen gradually and fall off by themselves. 



Water on the Brain, or Chronic Hydrocephalus, is happily a very rare disease. 

 It consists of a dropsy of the brain a collection of water within the cavity of the 

 skull. The disease begins to make its appearance about the sixth month of life, just 

 when the child begins to cut its first teeth. As the water collects inside the head, 

 the bones of the skull, being soft and not yet united together, yield to the pressure 

 from within, and grow thin and separate from each other, so that the head becomes 

 enormously large, the natural openings between the bones are much bigger than 

 ordinary, and the bones themselves are sometimes so attenuated as to allow of the 

 detection of the fluid beneath them. The head is sometimes nearly as big as the 

 whole of the rest of the child's body, and these unfortunate children are the " big- 

 headed monsters " who are shown as curiosities at country fairs. Although the head 

 grows big, the face remains of a natural size, and this disproportion between the size 

 of the head and face gives the child a veiy extraordinary appearance. The forehead 

 overhangs the eyes, and the eyes themselves have a peculiar appearance owing to the 

 lower half of the " whites " being completely obscured. The veins of the head are 

 usually large, and if the child is able to walk about, it gets a peculiar oscillating gait, 

 owing to the great size and weight of its head. The disease often occurs in the 

 tubercular and the rickety. The appetite is usually fairly good ; but in spite of this 



