The diseases if infancy and childhood; for the use of students and practitioners of medicine / by L. Emmett Holt.

  • Holt, L. Emmett (Luther Emmett), 1855-1924.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases if infancy and childhood; for the use of students and practitioners of medicine / by L. Emmett Holt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    made of a wire network and fastened to the limb by a tape, is probably the best form. As soon as the vesicle ruptures and begins to discharge serum, it should be frequently dusted with boric acid. If there is suppuration, the pock should be treated antiseptically, like any other granulating wound. If a vaccinated limb is kept perfectly clean, and the pock dry by the free use of the powder mentioned, very little trouble need be ap- prehended. If the local symptoms are at all severe, the limb should be kept at rest. For this reason, a child old enough to walk should not be vaccinated upon the leg. The complications are to be treated as when these conditions arise un- der other circumstances. CHAPTER VI. FURTUSSIS. Synonym: Whooping-cough. Peetussis is a contagious disease which prevails epidemically and in most large cities endemically. Although it may affect persons of any age, it is generally seen in young children, and as a rule it occurs but once in the same individual. While in later childhood pertussis may be ranked as one of the milder infectious diseases, in infancy it is one of the most fatal. Its principal complications are broncho-pneumonia and convul- sions. Pertussis is characterized' by catarrhal and nervous symptoms. The catarrh affects the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, and is probably due to a specific form of infection. It is accompanied by a hyper- sesthetic condition of these mucous membranes. The most prominent nervous manifestation is a peculiar spasmodic cough which occurs in par- oxysms, and from which the disease takes its name. The cough is no doubt of reflex origin, from an irritation which by different writers has been located in various parts of the respiratory tract. In addition to these conditions, there is present in pertussis a very marked irritability of the nervous system generally, which in infancy frequently shows itself by convulsions. Etiology.—Pertussis is probably due to a micro-organism, but its nature is as yet unknown. Proximity to a patient is all that is required to com- municate the disease, and as in the case of measles even close proximity is not necessary. There seems to be no doubt, from clinical experience, that the disease may be contracted in the open air. Predisposition.—Fully one half the cases of pertussis occur during the first two years of life. This statement, which is in accord with general experience, is borne out by the following statistics of Szabo (Buda-Pesth),