Diseases of infants and children / by Henry Dwight Chapin and Godfrey Roger Pisek ; with 181 ill. and eleven colored plates.

  • Chapin, Henry Dwight, 1857-1942.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of infants and children / by Henry Dwight Chapin and Godfrey Roger Pisek ; with 181 ill. and eleven colored plates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    virulent type, involving both the ocular and palpebral conjunctiva? The sac is filled with a grayish mucopurulent secretion, and there is intense chemosis. The subconjunctival connective tissue and skin are much swollen, so that the eye can only with difficulty be opened. There are photophobia, pain in the eye, and rise of temperature. Unless the symptoms quickly subside, the eye is irreparably damaged by ulceration and partial destruction of the cornea. The inflam- mation begins in one eye, but soon attacks the other unless it is effectively protected. The Prophylactic Treatment consists in employing antiseptic vaginal douches in the parturient woman when there is any muco- purulent discharge, and dropping two or three drops of a 2 per cent, solution of silver nitrate into each eye immediately after birth, after the method proposed by Crede. Curative Treatment.—When the inflammation has actually begun the eye must be kept as free of pus as possible by constant wash- ings with a saturated solution of boric acid. The swelled and puffy lids should have applied to them every few minutes gauze com- presses that have been kept upon a cake of ice, and the pus must be removed every hour or two. Constant cleansing and cooling of the surface will require the services of a careful nurse night and day. A 2 per cent, solution of nitrate of silver or of bichlorid of mercury, one or two grains to the pint, may be instilled between the lids every two or three hours, according to the severity of the case. As this affection so frequently results in blindness, it is well, if possible, to have the advice of an oculist. Protargol in 5 per cent, or argyrol 10 per cent, solution can be recommended as a substitute for nitrate of silver. It has the advantage of being less painful, and is equally efficient. If the disease is limited to one side an effort should be made to protect the sound eye from infection by applying a compress moistened with an antiseptic. The pupil must be dilated with sulphate of atropin if the cornea is attacked. Mastitis. The mammary glands of the new-born infant often secrete a milk-like substance, which appears between the fourth and tenth days after birth. During this time there may be swelling of the glands, which gradually abates with the subsidence of the secretion until, usually by the twentieth day at the latest, both secretion and swelling have disappeared. In some cases, however, the glands may remain