Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/185

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
  • tery; Diarrhœa; Hooping-Cough, in its various stages;

and Shivering Fit. Sir Charles sums up his letter to me by saying: "Such a book ought to be made as complete as possible, and the objections to medical treatment being so explained as to induce mothers to try to avoid medical men is not so serious as that of leaving them without any guide in those instances where every delay is dangerous, and yet where medical assistance is not to be obtained or not to be had quickly."

In addition to the above, I shall give you the treatment of Bronchitis, Measles, and Scarlet Fever. Bronchitis is one of the most common diseases incidental to childhood, and, with judicious treatment, is, in the absence of the medical man, readily managed by a sensible mother. Measles is very submissive to treatment. Scarlet Fever, if it be not malignant, and if certain rules be strictly followed, is also equally amenable to treatment. I have been fortunate in treating Scarlet Fever, and therefore think it desirable to enter fully into the treatment of a disease, which is looked upon by many parents, and according to the usual mode of treatment, with just cause, with great consternation and dread. By giving my plan of treatment fully and simply, and without the slightest reservation, I am fully persuaded, through God's blessing, that I may be the humble means of saving the lives of numbers of children. The diseases that might be treated by a mother, in the absence of a medical man, will form the subject of future Conversations. 197. At what age does Water on the Brain usually occur, and how is a mother to know that her child is about to labor under that disease?

Water on the brain is, as a rule, a disease of childhood; after a child is seven years old it is comparatively rare. It more frequently attacks delicate children—children