INFANCY. 
a morbid secretion, and that this is a cause 
of convulsions may be known from their 
being preceded by nausea, costiveness, or 
purging, pale countenance, swollen belly, 
and perturbed sleep. Repeated purges, 
particularly of castor-oil or calomel, with 
some light cordial, will be necessary and 
useful. Veal tea, mixed with milk, is the 
best nutriment ; and if all farinaceous food 
be avoided, the convulsions may often, 
hereby alone, be prevented from appear- 
ing. 
The children of the poor are not unfre.- 
quently afflicted with convulsions from foul 
air, and want of cleanliness in their skin 
and dress, a most extensive source of dis- 
ease. 
In convulsions arising from the irritation 
or foulness of the stomach and bowels, 
these must be cleansed as already mention- 
ed ; after which, if they appear to con- 
tinue, spasmodic remedies must be adminis- 
tered, such as spirit of hartshorn, tincture 
of castor, rectified oil of amber, or two or 
three drops of laudanum. Bathing the feet 
in warm water, and friction all over the 
body, with camphor liniment, are likewise 
very useful. 
When convulsion is a primary disease, 
proceeding immediately from the brain, 
bleeding, blistering, and purging, are requi- 
site; and also bathing the feet in warm 
water, friction of the legs, and rubbing the 
soles of the feet with the compound spirit 
of ammonia. In delicate children, chaly- 
beate-water may be useful ; and where 
those of tw o or three years old are subject 
to slight and frequent fits, issues, or setons 
in the neck or between the shoulders, 
should be made, and kept open for a length 
of time. 
Another, and the most serious, species of 
original convulsion, is attended with an un- 
meaning countenance, and constant stare and 
motion of the eyes, followed by a temporary 
deafness or blindness, and sometimes a loss 
of intellect. If water in the head be not 
suspected, and the common nervous medi- 
cines, with purges and blisters, have no 
effect, recourse must be had to repeated 
vomits, and bleeding with leeches ; where 
the body continues in a good state the 
water of prepared kali may be beneficial 
as a diuretic. Much benefit has also been 
derived from a free use of musk, whether 
by the mouth or in the form of injections, 
lyhen this sort of convulsion attacks young 
childjep, it terminates very soon, and too 
often fatally, especially if connected with 
water in the head. 
After all, alarming as convulsions are, 
they are by no means either so generally 
fatal or injurious to the system as is com- 
monly believed. Their number is far over- 
stated in the bills of mortality ; many chil- 
dren, in particular, being said to die under 
them who are really the victims of other 
disorders. An immediate and proper ap- 
plication will seldom fail to relieve the child, 
and as this may be necessary before pro- 
fessional assistance can be obtained ; mo- 
thers, and those who have the care of chil- 
dren in such situations, should so far under- 
stand the subject as to enable them to give 
the immediate aid required. With this 
view, in addition to what has already been 
said, we may observe, that were the irrita- 
tion proceeds from the bowels, the readiest 
remedy will be a soap clyster, with two or 
more tea-spoonfuls of salt, and afterwards 
the purgatives as before directed. But 
when the child falls suddenly into a con- 
vulsion, after sucking or feeding, and the 
bowels have been before regular, the irrita- 
tion may be supposed to exist in the sto- 
mach ; especially when there is an unusual 
paleness indicating sickness, or a consider- 
able blackness with an appearance of suffoca- 
tion : symptoms which may arise either from 
an overloaded stomach, or a small piece of 
indigested food irritating, and perhaps plug- 
ging up the inferior aperture of the stomach. 
Here, "without waiting for a regular emetic, 
some immediate means may be tried to pro- 
duce vomiting, as irritating the gullet with 
the finger or a feather, or throwing in a lit- 
tle smoke of tobacco, if it be at hand ; any 
of which will provoke instant vomiting, and 
by relieving the stomach of the cause of 
oppression, put an end to the fit. This will 
be the better and more easily accomplish- 
ed if the child be in the mean time sup- 
ported by a hand placed under its stomach 
and belly. In every case it is necessary to 
clear the bowels; and in most cases, this is 
best accomplished by pretty brisk doses of 
calomel. 
The next infantile disease we shall notice 
is hydrocephalus, or watery head. This is 
divided into external and internal. In the 
former, which is a very rare occurrence, the 
fluid lies on the surface of the brain ; in the 
latter, much deeper, and within the ventri- 
cles, which, from the mass of water they 
contain are much distended, and often dis- 
tend, to a monstrous size, the entire cranium. 
