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4
chitis, Pneumonia, Premature Birth, Teething, and Atrophy. Of
Measles, I will only say that the disease is not generally regarded
with that concern which it deserves. It is thought to be an inevitable
disease of childhood, and as a rule no efforts are made to
isolate the patient from the rest of the family. "Whooping Cough
also is not shunned as it should be. Children with the disease
play about among others, they are carried in public conveyances, and
are allowed to circulate freely among the rest of the community.
Diarrhoea among children is a disease usually rife in summer,
and it has been noticed that when the temperature of. the Thames
water rises above 60°F., the affection appears. There is no doubt
that it is due, in a great measure, to decomposition of the milk,
which forms a large proportion of the diet of children, together
with the employment of improper and indigestible food. Its fatality
is increased by the apathy with which its first symptoms are observed,
and before medical aid is obtained the poor little sufferer drifts
into a condition in which nothing can be done for it. Tabes
Mesenterica is also a disease aggravated, if not caused, by the use of
improper and indigestible food—the child becomes emaciated, and
the mother thinks to cure the emaciation by the administration of
plenty of nourishment. All her efforts are directed in the wrong
way, her treatment adds fuel to the fire, the child rapidly wastes,
its belly enlarges, and when it comes under the doctor's hands very
little can be done for it, and it dies literally starved in the midst of
plenty. Inflammation of the Brain and Convulsions are frequently
caused by defective and improper nutrition, as well as by teething.