A practical treatise on the diseases of children / By J. Forsyth Meigs ... and William Pepper.

  • Meigs, J. Forsyth (John Forsyth), 1818-1882.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases of children / By J. Forsyth Meigs ... and William Pepper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    ■whether growth and nutrition go on in their proper ratio; and if it be found that the mother is a poor nurse, and that the development of the child is slow and imperfect, we should at once direct an additional supply of nourishment, and the suspension of all mere drugs. We have often been surprised and delighted to find how soon, under the new treatment, the child becomes placid and comfortable, how well and how long it sleeps, and at what a rapid rate it develops its form aud size. So, when the cir- cumstances above referred to coincide with a somewhat disordered state of the bowels, we should first choose for the child the diet most appropriate to its age and state of health, and then, if after inquiry it appears that the whole quantity taken in the twenty-four hours is below the proper standard, the amount allowed must be augmented. The crying occasioned by pain in the head, by the pain which accom- panies pneumonia or pleurisy, or that which is attendant upon abdominal inflammations, is never scarcely constant, though it may be violent while it lasts. Pain in the head usually causes a sudden aud sharp cry or shriek, which is over as soon almost as heard, and which has been called the hydren- cephalic cry. The pain of pneumonia, which, it should be remarked, is not unfrequeutly absent, or so slight as not to be noticed, commonly occasions crying only during coughing, and for a short time after, and is accompanied by distortion or grimacing of the features. In pleurisy, again, the cry is also heard generally at the moment of coughing, but it is produced also by the act of moving the child, and by pressure on the affected side. It is commonly much louder, shriller, and indicative of greater suf- fering than in pneumonia, aud in some cases that we have seen, has been very frequent and difficult to appease. The cry of intestinal pain may almost always be recognized by the fact that it takes place just before or after a stool, that it is accompanied by wriggling and twisting movements of the trunk, and especially of the pelvis, or, in very young infants, by its coincidence with more or less flatu- lence, which is revealed by a tympanitic condition of the abdomen, and by frequent regurgitations of gas. Children not unfrequently cry much and very obstinately from mere fretfulness and general distress or malaise. This kind of crying may be recognized by its peculiar tone, which is short, sharp, and irritable. It is a fret rather than a scream ; it is occasioned by the least disturbance offered to the child, by the attempt to move it, to dress it, to attend to any of its wants, even to look at or notice it; it is moreover possible, generally, to still such a cry by soothing treatment, or by the endeavor to amuse the little thing with toys. Lastly, a child will sometimes attempt to cry, but is unable to utter any or only a very faint sound. This depends commonly upon some laryngeal impediment, but may be also the result of pure exhaustion; there is not sufficient strength to sound a cry. The cry of the young child has been divided by M. Billard into the cry proper and the return ; and inasmuch as these two portions of the cry are differently affected in different diseased conditions, it is important that we