For the bites of bugs, fleas, or gnats, the best remedy is eau de Cologne, so as to convert the itching into slight smarting; or the part may be smeared over with olive oil.

Sect. 10.-Poisons.

I have known in more than one instance the attendants upon a sick child give a lotion containing poison instead of the medicine, and cases have also again and again occurred where children finding bottles in a closet or elsewhere have out of curiosity swallowed laudanum, oil of vitriol, and the like. The alarm and distress suffered by the parents, having no immediate guidance or help, may be easily imagined. To know what to do on the spur of the moment is not only in all instances a source of the greatest relief, but in some cases, from the rapidly fatal operation of some poisons, a matter of life or death. Just a few directions, therefore, suited to such emergencies will not be out of place; the more particularly as everyone must feel that the more universally such information is diffused the better. Presuming then that the medical man will be sent for without delay, the following means may be employed until his arrival :

POISONS. Laudanum, in any form.

TREATMENT.

The great object is to remove the poison from the stomach. Give an emetic; the simplest is plenty of salt and warm water; or sulphate of zinc (white vitriol), ten grains;— or ipecacuanha, ten grains;- - or tartar emetic, one grain every hour in a little warm water. Repeat the dose until copious vomiting is excited. Keep the patient constantly roused; walk him up and down the room, drag him along, and do not listen to his entreaties to be

POISONS.

Sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol).

Nitric acid (aqua fortis).

Oxalic acid.

Arsenic.

Corrosive sublimate.

Goulard water.

Lotions and
Liniments.

TREATMENT.

left to repose. Dash cold water over the head and face occasionally, and also put the feet in warm water. When the opium has been completely removed, coffee may be given.

Administer without delay chalk or magnesia, if you have it by you (a full table-spoon to every tumbler of water); but if not, scrape off the plaster from the wall of the apartment, or some whitening out of the kitchen, and mix it with water; give freely one of the foregoing. Whilst this antidote is being prepared, if vomiting is not already free, give an emetic. After the antidote has been freely given, use diluents, such as milk, so as to render the vomiting more

easy.

Empty the stomach by an emetic of ten grains of sulphate of zinc. Give milk both before and after the vomiting has begun, never allowing the strength to be exhausted by retching, the stomach having nothing to act upon. If you have not milk, flour and water will form a good substitute.

Give the white of eggs beaten up in water; and if eggs cannot be immediately obtained, flour and water, or milk.

If the child is not sick, give an emetic; sulphate of zinc (white vitriol) is best.

If in doubt about the kind of poison contained in the lotion or liniment, give an emetic immediately, which, ridding the stomach of it, will of itself generally be all that is necessary, since these preparations most frequently do not contain much poisonous matter.

CHAPTER XIII.

DISORDERS OF THE STOMACH AND
BOWELS OF INFANTS.

DISORDER of the stomach and bowels, as shown by indigestion, flatulence, vomiting, griping, and looseness, is one of the most fruitful sources of the diseases of infancy. Only prevent these derangements and in nine instances out of ten the infant will be healthy and flourish. Experience daily proves that a large proportion of the children who die in infancy are lost from derangement of these organs as the primary cause. There are many causes which may give rise to these affections; some of them appertain to the mother's system, others to that of the infant. All are capable, to a great extent, of being prevented or remedied. It is, therefore, most important that a parent should not be ignorant or misinformed upon this subject. It is the prevention of these affections, however, that will be principally dwelt upon in this chapter, for let the mother ever bear in mind and act upon the principle that the prevention of disease alone belongs to her; the cure, to the physician. For the sake of clearness and reference, these disorders will be spoken of as they occur:— in the infant at the breast -at the period of weaning-and in the infant brought up by hand.

Sect. 1.-In the Infant at the breast.

The most frequent causes giving rise to derangements of the stomach and bowels in the infant at the breast, are unwholesome breast-milk, irregular nursing, the irritation of teething, and cold or damp.

1. Unhealthy breast-milk.—This may arise from the parent getting out of health,—a circumstance which will be so manifest to herself, and to those more immediately interested in her welfare, that it is only necessary just to allude to it here. Suffice it to say that there are many causes of a general kind to which it may owe its origin; but that the most frequent is undue lactation, a subject to which reference has already been made (p. 38), and the effects both upon mother and child fully dwelt upon. To cure derangement of the bowels from this cause, a wet-nurse is the only remedy.

Anxiety of mind in the mother will cause her milk to be unhealthy in its character and deficient in quantity, giving rise to flatulence, griping, and sometimes even convulsions in the infant. A fit of passion in the nurse will frequently be followed by a fit of bowel complaint in the child. These causes of course are temporary, and when removed, the milk becomes as healthy and sufficient for the child as before. Sudden and great mental disturbance, however, will occasionally drive away the milk altogether, and in a few hours.

Unwholesome articles of diet will affect the mother's milk, and derange the infant's bowels. Malt liquor that is not sound; salads, pickles, sour fruit, cucumbers, melons, acids, and the like. Too full and luxu

rious a mode of living, by causing the milk to become too rich, will injuriously affect the child. Cases illustrating these facts have already been given in the first chapter.

In the same way, aperient medicine taken by the mother will act on the child's bowels through the effect which it produces upon her milk. This, however, is not the case with all kinds of purgative medicine, nor does the same purgative produce a like effect upon all children. It is well, therefore, for a parent to notice what aperient acts thus through her system upon that of the child, and what does not t; and when an aperient becomes necessary for herself, unless she desire that the infant's bowels be moved, to avoid the former: if otherwise, she may take the latter with good effect.

Again, the return of the monthly periods whilst the mother is a nurse always affects the properties of the milk, more or less deranging the stomach and bowels of the infant. It will thus frequently happen, that a few days before the mother is going to be unwell, the infant will become fretful and uneasy; its stomach will throw up the milk, and its motions will be fre quent, watery, and greenish. And then, when the period is fully over, the milk will cease to purge. It is principally in the early months, however, that the infant seems to be affected by this circumstance, for it will be generally found that although the milk is certainly impaired by it, being less abundant and nutritious, still, after the third or fourth month, it ceases to affect the infant. Is then a mother, because her monthly periods return after her delivery, to give up nursing? Certainly not, unless the infant's health is seriously affected by it, for she will generally find