Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/131

 occasion, the insertion of some interesting cases of infantile disease, intended to confirm the opinions broached in this paper. I cannot conclude, however, without calling the attention of the profession to the treatment of infantile diseases, by the introduction of remedial agents, through the medium of the cutaneous absorbents, rather than by the mouth. In the diseases of adults, we see how powerfully certain very useful remedies act when absorbed by the skin; and many substances, which are quite inert, when applied to the skin of an adult, are not only partially absorbed, in the case of infants, but exhibit very marked effects. Liniments, ointments, fomentations and poultices, may be made the vehicle of medicines, which cannot always be introduced by the mouth. It is quite manifest, as has been observed by an able writer on the diseases of infants, from the innumerable ramifications of the capillary vessels which penetrate the cutaneous texture, and the multitude of nervous filaments which give them sensibility, that poultices, in their simple or medicated forms, can be made remarkably efficient in counteracting the impressions of disease in many of the living structures. They may, occasionally, be employed as the vehicle of opiates, aperients, diuretics, stimulants, and other active remedies. If the mother's milk is not efficacious enough to counteract a tendency to sluggishness in the bowels of her infant, and the aid of medicine is required, some aperient powder, sprinkled, or, in some instances, a little castor oil, rubbed, on the abdomen, and the subsequent application of a warm poultice, will often suffice. In former days, great reliance was placed on strong decoctions of herbs, applied externally, in