A practical treatise on the diseases of children / by J. Forsyth Meigs.

  • Meigs, J. Forsyth (John Forsyth), 1818-1882.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases of children / by J. Forsyth Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    the duration of the attack depended on the form and degree of the attendant angina. In one case it became chronic, and was accom- panied by ulceration of the nasal passages. The prognosis must depend on the age of the child, and the nature of the attack. In young infants, simple idiopathic coryza is never, perhaps, dangerous; while the idiopathic purulent or pseudo-membranous forms are extremely so. The only two cases of the latter kind that I have seen were fatal. The four cases in older children recovered without any difficulty. When it occurs in connexion with pseudo-membranous angina, or in the course of scarlet fever, the prognosis will of course depend on that of those diseases. Treatment.—Simple coryza requires no treatment in children over two years of age, except attention to hygienic conditions. I believe that young children may often be preserved from attacks of spasmodic laryngitis and of bronchitis, by calling the attention of the mother to the strong tendency which exists during infancy and childhood to extension of disease, and advising, in cases of coryza, that the child should be secluded in the house, or else very warmly clothed, if sent out. In infants, even simple coryza gives trouble, by causing ob- structed respiration, and consequent restlessness. For these symp- toms I have found nothing so useful as passing a small camel's- hair pencil loaded with sweet oil, some distance up each nostril, and directing the outside of the nose, the openings of the nostrils, and the upper lip, to be freely anointed with cold cream, simple cerate, or any soft and adhesive ointment. In infants labouring under purulent or pseudo-membranous coryza, the indications for the treatment are to remove the secre- tions as they collect, and to subdue the inflammation of the mucous membrane which produces them. The first indication may be fulfilled by means of a brush made of long camel's hair, by throw- ing water from a small syringe into the nasal passages, or when the discharges are thin and fluid, by blowing strongly into the nostrils, whilst the tongue is depressed by a finger introduced into the mouth, so as to allow the secretions to pass out of the posterior nares into the fauces. ■6*