The diseases of children : a short introduction to their study / by James Frederic Goodhart.

  • Goodhart, James Frederic, 1845-1916.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of children : a short introduction to their study / by James Frederic Goodhart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    111 five-and-twenty cases of the 141 there was a dis- tinct history of fright, and in six others the child was noticed to be nnnsually timid ; in other cases the disease coninienced after a tit, some exanthem, over- woi-k, &c. Taking the hgures of Dr. Stni'ges, See, Ilillier, and Peacock with these, we have 670 cases, and 224 of them due to fright or some nervous shock or strain. This, probably, is too low an estimate of mental shock, for of 439 cases tabulated by Dr. Stephen Mackenzie from the Collective Investigation returns, 222, or 50 per cent., were attributed to causes of this kind It is worth remark that, although there is in so many cases a definite history of fright, the onset after it is often slow, and thus it happens that it is difficult in many cases to see any relation between the supposed cause and the effect: and doubtless, for the same reason, it happens that a cause such as this is at times entirely overlooked. I am disposed to think that one frequent cause of fright or nervous shock in children which is liable to be overlooked in this relation is nightmare. Nervous children are very prone to this affection, and nothing is thought of it; but those who have ex- jierienced the horrors of its “ nocturnal tragedies ”— the jialpitating heart of the awakening, and the ecstatic relief which is then experienced, as “ struggling and half vanishing, it is dragged into daylight ” (Elia)— will know that, to an unstable nervous system, few things are more fitted to upset the balance and to induce chorea. llheuinatism.—And here too comes in the question of the relation of chorea to rheumatism, because, although in the majority of cases, perhaps, the latter stands to chorea rather as a constitutional element which predisposes, yet in some it precedes the chorea and introduces it, so to speak, and may thus be .said to cause it. Of a total of 141 ca.scs thirty-nine had had rheumatic fever, .and fifty more had a history of rheu- matism in some of their near relatives. There has been much discussion as to what the re-