A practical treatise on the diseases of infancy and childhood / by Thomas Hawkes Tanner.

  • Tanner, Thomas Hawkes, 1824-1871.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the diseases of infancy and childhood / by Thomas Hawkes Tanner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    lar meningitis, our power of arresting the progress of the disease is very small indeed, and is limited entirely to the earlier stages. Probably, if we could be sure of the diagnosis, which we very seldom can, during what may be termed the premonitory stage, treat- ment might do something to arrest the progress of the case ere the symptoms became fully manifest, but when they are declared there is nothing left for us to do but to treat the more urgent and pressing symptoms as they arise, to mitigate suffering, and to ease the passage of the little patient from this world to the next. In fulfil- ment of our first task, a carefully regulated and nutritious diet is of the utmost importance. Diarrhoea, which is often a very trouble- some symptom, will be best combated by opium with the compound aromatic chalk powder : in our hands astringents have not generally been successful, but logwood and krameria are the best, sometimes ipecacuanha with or without opium (Dovers powder) has been very useful in this respect, but it seems one of the peculiar features of this disease, that what answers well in one case entirely disagrees in another. The symptom which next claims attention at our hands is the pain, the relief of which is of prime importance. We know of no better application for this purpose than warm linseed meal poultices to the abdomen, to which fifteen or twenty drops of laudanum is added. In some cases, lint soaked in belladonna liniment and laid over the body answers well, and in all cases opium internally, especially with camphor, in the form of paregoric, is required. When the diarrhoea is stayed, cod-liver oil is the remedy on which we should place most reliance, and it should be given to the fullest extent that the child can bear. The setherised form will often be retained and will answer well when the common oil disagrees. As a rule, tonics of all kinds are not well borne ; the mineral tonics are the least satisfactory, steel being seldom tolerated except in the most delicate form, the wine. The milder aromatic hitter tonics, calumba, cascarilla, chiretta, &c., are those we have found most agreeable, combined with an alkali. We need scarcely add that, in our opinion, depletion in any shape and mercury in any form is to be carefully eschewed. The same applies to iodine and its compounds. The general hygienic management of these cases is the same as for other forms of tubercular disease. VI. TABES MESENTERICA. Tabes mesenterica is the name given to that form of tubercular disease which attacks the mesenteric glands; it might indeed he termed abdominal phthisis in common with the tubercular form of chronic peritonitis. The mesenteric glands are so small at birth that they can scarcely be distinguished; but about the period of dentition they gradually