Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/229

 with one hand, and the forehead with the other. Let the mucus, the moment it is within reach, be wiped with a soft handkerchief out of his mouth.

232. In an obstinate case of Hooping-cough, what is the best remedy?

Change of air, provided there be no active inflammation, to any healthy spot. A farm-house, in a high, dry, and salubrious neighborhood, is as good a place as can be chosen. If, in a short time, he be not quite well, take him to the sea-side: the sea breezes will often, as if by magic, drive away the disease.

233. Suppose my child should have a shivering fit, is it to be looked upon as an important symptom?

Certainly. Nearly all serious illnesses commence with a shivering fit: severe colds, influenza, inflammations of different organs, scarlet fever, measles, small-pox and very many other diseases, begin in this way. If, therefore, your child should ever have a shivering fit, instantly send for a medical man, as delay might be dangerous. A few hours of judicious treatment, at the commencement of an illness, is frequently of more avail than days and weeks, nay months, of treatment, when disease has gained a firm footing. A serious disease often steals on insiduously, and we have, perhaps, only the shivering fit, which might be but a slight one, to tell us of its approach.

A trifling ailment, too, by neglecting the premonitory symptom, which, at first, might only be indicated by a slight shivering fit, will sometimes become a mortal disorder:

"The little rift within the lute, That by-and-by will make the music mute, And ever widening slowly silence all."

The above extract from Tennyson is, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful pieces of poetry in the