North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826Various
History
North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826
Various
Medicine -- Periodicals
The employment of aromatics as prophylactics is not less beneficial in
children than in adults. I would not, however, advise, that they should
be given indiscriminately to all children, during the summer. It is only
to those cases, in which a predisposition to cholera infantum exists,
that I consider them peculiarly applicable; and here I believe they are
capable of producing much good.
Before dismissing the subject of the paper, I will simply remark, in
addition to what has been already said, that the occasional use of the
cold bath, by the vigour it imparts to the system generally, and through
it to the digestive organs, will often be found an excellent
preservative against the summer complaint of children.
In this short account of the preventive treatment of cholera infantum, I
have been less anxious to give a dissertation, embracing all that might
be said on the subject, than to communicate those particular measures,
which, according to my own experience, I have found most effectual. I
will conclude the paper by the relation of a case, in which a strong
predisposition to the disease was successfully counteracted. It will be
proper, however, to premise, that the treatment of this case is by no
means held out as an example to be generally followed with every
infant, which may possibly become the subject of cholera. It is
applicable in all its details only to those, in which, as in the present
instance, there is every reason to apprehend, that the only alternative
is between almost certain death, and the most careful prophylactic
treatment.
CASE.--A gentleman of this city, whose wife had arrived at a period of
life, when she could not expect to be the mother of many more children,
consulted me respecting an infant daughter, their only surviving child.
I was informed, that they had already lost eight children, all of whom,
with one exception, had died of cholera. It may readily be imagined,
that every feeling of parental anxiety was awakened for their babe; and
that no degree of attention on their part was considered too great,
which might contribute to its preservation. It was placed under my care,
not to be cured, but that I might, if possible, devise some plan of
management which would avert the disease they had so much reason to
apprehend. I felt the responsibility of the trust, and endeavoured to
find it to the best of my ability. Every opportunity which I could
desire was afforded me; for the infant, from its birth was submitted to
my direction; and both the disposition and ability existed, on the part
of the parents, to carry implicitly into effect every measure which I
might recommend.
As the mother was unable to furnish sufficient nourishment, the first
step was to provide a healthy wet-nurse, who might be willing to submit
to the necessary regulations in respect to diet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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