Volume 2

On the cerebral diseases of children : with regard to their early manifestations and treatment / [Walter Cooper Dendy].

  • Dendy, Walter Cooper, 1794-1871
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the cerebral diseases of children : with regard to their early manifestations and treatment / [Walter Cooper Dendy]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ON THE CEREBRAL DISEASES OF CHILDREN. THE study of infantile pathology is replete with interest. The excessive fatality which marks the spring-time of human life must constantly claim our most anxious exertions, while the simplicity which charac- terizes the diseases of childhood, uncomplicated by those disordered actions and changes so constant in after life, and uninfluenced by mental emotion, renders their study deeply interesting. With this simplicity, however, there is combined predisposition and proneness to disease, as well as susceptibility of external impression in an eminent degree. The pink hue and extreme vascularity of the skin indicate an excess of arterial sensibility; while the irregular, almost convulsive action on very slight stimulation, the facility with which laughter and crying are induced, and the rapidity with which extreme exhaustion will often occur, are proofs of the intense sensibility with which the nervous system is endowed. The disorders of children are also marked by extreme celerity of progress, illustrated by the rapidity with which inflammatory disease will often run its course, and the sudden formation of its morbid pro- ducts, the highly elaborated lymph membrane of croup, and the almost instantaneous effusion of serum in the wasserschlag. The mucous membranes are the earliest sufferers from extraneous excitement. The membrane of the alimentary canal has suddenly im- posed on it the most important duty of assimilation; that of the respi- ratory canals is directly submitted to the influence of air of a low tem- perature. Notwithstanding, therefore, the profusion of mucus with which - nature has supplied these tissues, these influences are the constant source of various disorders, especially diarrhcea, bronchitis, and pneumonia. Happily, however, the mucous membranes are endowed with a faculty of relieving themselves by pouring out an excess of this natural secre- tion; they may therefore be often hailed as the vis medicatria.