Neurosal affections of the heart in children / by W.H. Day.

  • Day, William Henry, 1830-1907.
Date:
[1878]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Neurosal affections of the heart in children / by W.H. Day. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Warm clothing, good food, and rest are to be strictly carried out, for the heart is fidgety, and prone as it were to take offence at the least irritation. It flutters and trembles under any degree of emotional excitement, just as the cranial nerves ache at the receipt of bad, or worrying news; and a delicate stomach ejects food which is not of the simplest character. Notwithstanding these instructions, the symptoms will not yield, if the patients are kept too closely at study and school work. Sleep will be broken and unrefreshing, nervous exhaustion will increase, and the heart will become more and more unsteady. As to diet this is of paramount importance. It should be of the most nutritious character, and given in small quantities at a time so as not to overload the stomach, for if the patient goes too long without food, exhaustion ensues, and during di- gestion the stomach is taxed to the utmost, oppression of the stomach follows, and vomiting with increased agitation of the heart comes on. Wine or brandy, where the irregularity is great, and the heart consequently weak, is a valuable addition to the treatment. When we have neglected to make a careful examination, and to form a diagnosis, we are too disposed to attribute the chronic ill-health of children to debility, a word comprehensive enough when the bodily powers are uniformly depressed, but which skips over the ground of scientific precision, and conveys in a large number of cases nothing definite or exact. Debility is one link in a long and intricate chain of morbid pheno- mena. It is present in anosmia when the blood is healthy but deficient, it is observed when the blood is diseased, as in albuminuria, and the heart is over excited and disturbed by it. Some cases of heart affection when advanced to a certain stage speak for themselves by general constitutional symptoms, and our diagnosis is made complete by inquiring into the physical changes which accompany them, But there are other (and the class is numerous) in which the symptoms are obscure, and a minute inquiry into mental and physical phenomena is our only guide to escape the charge of ignorant speculation, or hasty observation. All the functions of the body must be separately examined and inquired into, lest we omit something important which we ought to detect.