Report on the progress of practical medicine, in the departments of midwifery and the diseases of women and children in the years 1845-6 / by Charles West.

  • West, Charles, 1816-1898.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the progress of practical medicine, in the departments of midwifery and the diseases of women and children in the years 1845-6 / by Charles West. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    still-born at the /th month, resembling what have been described by some writers as the results of inflammation, an opinion in which Dr. Hermann coin- cides. The substance of both lungs was solid and of a reddish brown colour. On their surface, as well as in their substance were numerous small patches,' varying from the size of a lentil to that of a bean, of an irregularly round’ form, and a dirty grayish tint, exceedingly firm and dense, presenting an in- distinctly granular structure when divided, and infiltrated with a gray, adhesive matter. [Similar appearances are enumerated at p. 16(1 of Graetzer’s work- on ‘ Diseases of the Foetus,’ who is disposed to regard them as the conse- quences of inflammation.] 2. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISEASES AND MANAGEMENT OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD. Diet in infancy. Dr. Klencke* calls attention to the important deterioration which the milk of stall-fed cows undergoes, and is inclined to attribute the production of scrofula in children in many instances, to its direct transmission through the the medium of that fluid. Although the direct production of scrofula by the contagious properties of the milk is assumed rather than proved in this pamphlet, still the fact is very important that stall-fed cows' often become tuberculous, and that their milk loses much or even the whole of its sugar, that the butter and casein diminish, while albumen is found, sometimes in as high a proportion as 15 per cent., and plain in the proportion of 1 4 per cent., and that in some cases lactic acid is likewise present. In a well-written paper on the subject of diet in children. Dr. Marottef draws attention to the error often committed in placing infants on a spare diet, who have been observed not to thrive at the breast, but to suffer from diarrhea and to lose flesh. The real means of cure would consist in obtaining a wet-nurse for the child, and thus providing it with a more instead of a less nutritious food. Many instances of gastro-intestinal disorder in childhood de- pend, in his opinion, on the want of a more highly animalized diet. It is there- fore, as a general rule, undesirable to dilute the milk of the herbivora, already poor in animal constituents ; while in those cases where it is necessary to supply deficiency in the nutritive qualities of the nurse’s milk, chicken or other broth, either alone or mixed with milk, should be used for that purpose. Infantile therapeutics. A manual on this subject has been published by MM. Berton and LehubyT It is decidedly inferior to Dr. Ure’s little work on the same subject, which appeared in this country some years ag-o. In a paper on the use of opium in childhood, Dr. Sobotka§ takes what seems to the writer of this Report, a very exaggerated view of the dangers of its administration, and expresses opinions which, if generally received, would banish this drug from practice in the diseases of children. In many of the cases that he relates as illustrative of the mischievous results produced by opium, diarrhea had existed for some time, and it may be questioned whether the head symptoms were not the consequences of that, rather than of the admi- nistration of opium. A very interesting case is related by Dr. M. Barry,|| of an infant aged ') months, which had been poisoned by 30 drops ol laudanum, and was not seen till seven hours afterwards, when in a state of profound coma. From this state it was roused by the employment of electro-magnetism. At first, when the current ceased for a moment, the child sank into a profound sleep, and fhere was no marked amendment until the means hud been con- tinued for three hours ; and four hours and three quarters had passed before * Ueber die Ansleckung und Vcrbreitung dcr Scrofelkrankheit bci Menechen durcli den Genussder Kuhmilch. Leipsig, 1840 ; and an abstract of it in J. f. Kinderkr., June, 1840. t Journal de Medecine, August, 1845; and J. f. Kinderkr., March, 1840. I Formulaire Thtrapeutique, et Mntiirc Medicale, concernant les Maladies de I’Enfance. 12mo, Paris, 1846. § J. f- Kinderkr., Dec., 1845. 5 Northern Journal, June, 1840,