Again: as the contagious property of smallpox hangs about the child as
long as any scabs remain (which indeed may be said to retain the poison
in its concentrated form), a parent must be most careful that the
invalid is not too early brought in contact with the healthy members of
the family.
An observance of these precautions is imperatively demanded; they not
only protect the healthy, but aid the infected.
Sect. VIII.--HOOPING-COUGH.
My chief inducement to notice the above disorder arises out of the
well-known fact, that there is no complaint of childhood more
frequently subjected to quackery and mismanagement than is this.
Indeed, there are few maladies against which a greater array and
variety of means have been recommended, than against hooping-cough.
I suppose from the circumstance of the simple and mild form of the
complaint being so tractable (provided it remain such) that the
simplest and mildest measures effect its cure, parents are tempted to
undertake its management in the more severe and complicated forms; and
the result is but too often the establishment of disease dangerous to
life, and sometimes fatal to it.
But although most imprudent for a parent to assume the office of the
physician, her aid is essentially necessary in carrying out the
measures prescribed.
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