Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/241

 would be advisable to give, by the mouth, raw beef of the finest quality, which ought to be taken from the hip-*bone, and should be shredded very fine. All fat and skin must be carefully removed. One or two teaspoonfuls (according to the age of the child) ought to be given every four hours. The giving of raw meat to children in exhaustive diseases, such as excessive long-standing diarrhœa, was introduced into practice by a Russian physician, a Professor Weisse, of St. Petersburg. It certainly is, in these cases, a most valuable remedy, and has frequently been the means of snatching such patients from the jaws of death. Children usually take raw meat with avidity and with a relish. 249. If a child be naturally delicate, what plan would you recommend to strengthen him?

I should advise strict attention to the rules above mentioned, and change of air—more especially, if it be possible, to the coast. Change of air, sometimes, upon a delicate child, acts like magic, and may restore him to health when all other means have failed. If a girl be delicate, "carry her off to the farm, there to undergo the discipline of new milk, brown bread, early hours, no lessons, and romps in the hay-field." This advice is, of course, equally applicable for a delicate boy, as delicate boys and delicate girls ought to be treated alike. Unfortunately, in these very enlightened days! there is too great a distinction made in the respective management and treatment of boys and girls.

The best medicines for a delicate child will be the wine of iron and cod-liver oil. Give them combined in the manner I shall advise when speaking of the treatment of Rickets.

In diseases of long standing, and that resist the usual remedies, there is nothing like change of air. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, says: