In the course of a week, a very marked difference was
perceptible in the pulse, urine, and evacuations from the bowels of the
two children. The pulse of the first was raised, the urine high
coloured, and the evacuations destitute of their usual quantity of
bile. In the other child, no change whatever was produced. He then
reversed the experiment, giving to the first the orange, and to the
second the wine, and the results corresponded: the child who had the
orange continued well, and the system of the other got straightway
into disorder, as in the first experiment.[FN#15]
[FN#15] Marcellin relates an instance of seven children in a family
whose bowels became infested with worms, from the use of stimulants.
They were cured by substituting water for the pernicious beverage.
In this town, spirits, particularly gin, are given to infants and
children to a frightful extent. I have seen an old Irish woman give
diluted spirits to the infant just born. A short time since one of
those dram-drinking children, about eight years of age, was brought
into one of our hospitals. The attendants, from its emaciated
appearance, considered the child was dying from mere starvation; which
was true enough in a certain sense. Food was accordingly offered and
pressed upon it, but the boy would not even put it to his lips.
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