The sudden healing of these cutaneous affections has again
and again been followed by head-disease. They are unsightly in the
eyes of a parent, but it must be recollected that they render the
situation of such children much more safe; and when teething is
completed they will generally disappear spontaneously; or, if they
should not, they will readily do so by proper medical treatment. I have
no doubt that many a child's life has been saved by the appearance and
continuance of these eruptions; and so sensible are medical men of the
benefit derived from them, that in individuals in whom they do not
appear, and in whose family there exists a predisposition to the
disease now under our consideration, an issue or seton, in the arm or
neck, has sometimes been made, and had a remarkable influence in
warding off this affection. Dr. Cheyne refers to the circumstance of
ten children in one family having died of this disease; the eleventh,
for whom this measure was employed, having been preserved.
Stimulants, throughout the whole period of infancy and childhood, and
of every description, must be prohibited. Children nursed by drunken
parents, and who have indulged in the use of spirituous liquors during
suckling, are never healthy; are the frequent subjects of convulsions,
and many of them die eventually of water in the head.
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