Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/532

 MEDICAL 508 convulsions, however, take place during the early months of infancy before the teeth have appeared. Worms, also, are not really a cause, but they indicate a low state of health, and the condition makes a child liable to convulsions. The rickety child is especially susceptible, and rickets is essentially a disease of debility. In certain fevers convulsions are apt to occur. Scarlet fever, measles, and pneumonia are often preceded by convulsions. The more severe forms of this affection are sometimes associated with serious nervous diseases in children, such as meningitis and tumours of the brain. An attack is generally preceded by restlessness and twitchings, and the spasm often begins in the hands. The eyes are fixed, the body becomes stiff and the face blue, because breathing is suspended owing to the spasm of the muscles of respiration. A series of spasms follow, the hands and arms twitch, and the head is drawn back. The attack gradually passes off, and the child sleeps. The treatment consists in dealing with the cause. If due to the eating of indigestible food, a tcaspoonful of ipecacuanha wine, repeated every ten minutes, should be given until vomiting occurs. If the gums are swollen and hot, they may be lanced. The child should be put into a warm bath immediately of 95° or 96*^, whilst the head and neck should be bathed with cold water. Any medicinal treatment has to be undertaken by a medical man. COPyza is an acute catarrhal inflammation of the upper air passages, commonly called cold in the head. An article on " Colds and Catarrhs " appeared in Part 3 of Every Woman's Encyclo- P/EDIA, which the reader must refer to for information regarding causes and prevention. The chief symptoms are chilliness, headache, sneezing, slight fever, and pain in the back and limbs. The mucous membrane of the nose is swollen, and the nose feels stuffed up. Then an irritating secretion flows, which makes the edges of the nostrils red and painful. The mucous membrane of the eye is usually involved ; the pharynx and larynx may also be affected. Deafness sometimes follows from the inflammation spreading up the Eustachian tubes to the ears. In about thirty-six hours the nasal secretion becomes more profuse, the swelling subsides, and in a few days the symptoms disappear. Coryza may be the first sign of measles or influenza. In milder cases very little treatment is required, except the inhalation of medicated steam. A piece of camphor or a teaspoonful of Friar's balsam may be added to a jug of boiling water, and the steam inhaled. An aperient should also be taken. A well-known doctor recommended the inhalation of a snuff consisting of : morphia, two grains ; bismuth, four grains ; acacia powder, two drams. If there is fever, the patient should be kept in bed on fluid diet, with plenty of hot gruel and milk. Cough is a sudden contraction of the muscles of expiration caused by some irritation in the respiratory passages. It is not a disease which requires to be " cured." Cough may be a good thing, in that it clears the respiratory passages of mucous expectoration, and it is quite a mistake to think that medicine should be taken to stop a cough in all instances. Many such drugs simply take away the sensitiveness of the mucous membrane of the respiratory passages, and the excretion, or expectoration, is allowed to lie in contact with the bronchial tubes or wind- pipe, instead of being cleared away by the cough. There are many varieties of cough, some of which are typical of different throat and chest ailments. There is the wheezy cough of bron- chitis, which is associated with expectoration. There is the paroxysmal cough of whooping- cough, due to a series of expirations followed by a long, whooplike inspiration or indrawing of the breath. In various throat affections a sharp, barking cough is present. The so-called nervous cough is of this type also. In the latter case there is no expectoration. In chronic digestive and liver ailments a cough of this description is often present, due to the collection of mucous at the back of the pharynx. There is another type of cough which is present in digestive disorders, which is called reflex, because it is not local — that is, the cause is not situated in the respiratory passages. It is due to irritation of the nerves supplying the muscles of expiration. The cough of pleurisy and pneumonia are also typical to the doctor's ear. Cough is not necessarily due to affection of the lungs and breathing passages. Irritation of the throat is a very common cause of chronic cough. The treatment of cough depends upon the cause. The one thing every woman ought to remember is the folly of dosing a cough, of trying to ■' stop " the cough, whatever the cause may be. When the cause is not known, the doctor should be consulted, who will deal with any condition producing it. Cramp is a spasm of certain muscles associated with severe pain. Cramp of the leg is quite a common and troublesome symptom in persons who are absolutely healthy. The pain comes on at night geneially. It often appears in people when their digestion is out of order, or if they are run down in health. Cold feet is another cause of simple cramp. The best treatment is friction of the muscles, and a. hot bottle will often prevent an attack. Swimmers' cramp is due to exhaustion and cold. It may affect the muscles of the limbs or the body, in which case a fatal accident is apt to occur unless help is close at hand. Writers' cramp is a type of what might be called " occupation cramp." It may only exist as a stiffness of the fingers after writing for some time, or it may be so severe as to cause a spasm whenever an}' attempt is made to write. In bad cases it may even spread up the arm and shoul- der. It is often very troublesome to people whose work entails a good deal of writing, and its existence is a strong argument for ambi- dexterity. The same type of cramp is apt to attack musicians who play for many hours daily at the violin and piano, and telegraphists and typists sometimes suffer from the same thing. Cpetinism is a peculiar condition associated with dwarfism and impaired mental develop ment. It is commonly met with in Switzerland, and in parts of Italy and France, but in the Lake District of England a great many cases are also to be found. Here and there a cretin is born in an otherwise healthy family. The unfortunate cretin is undeveloped physically and mentally. An adult may be no bigger than a child of five or six years. The face is broad, flat, and lacking in expression; the skin is dry and the hair is coarse. The condition is said to be due to the abnormal development of the thyroid gland in the neck, and the cause of this condition is not known. The earlier the treatment of thyroid in the case of children the better the result. Without treatment the patient grows up as a dwarf and as mentally deficient, and naturally creates a great deal of unhappiness both to his parents and brothers and sisters, if any. To be continued.