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that power which the more direct means SO generally practised serve but to exhaust." In these few remarks on "a good carriage," I have drawn freely from a valuable article of Dr. Barlow's, in the Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine.

CHAPTER III.

OF MEDICINE, AND OF THE USE AND ABUSE OF CERTAIN REMEDIES.

In almost every nursery some medicines are kept, which are given to the children more or less frequently as their trifling ailments occur. And there is no objection to this, provided due care and judgment are exercised by those who administer them, and only those medicines are kept and given, which may be resorted to with safety. Unfortunately this is not the case in all families, and then what misery and destruction to health does not the nursery medicine-chest produce! slowly unknowingly perhaps, - but not the less surely. If, however, it be granted, that a young mother is not to send for the physician for every trifling ailment of her little one, and surely no one would insist on this, then it is also very plain that there is a certain amount of information in the way of caution as well as instruction about medicine and remedies of which she ought not to be ignorant. For example, it is not required of her to

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seek her medical attendant every time her infant needs a dose of castor oil, but then she surely ought to know something about the quantity of this drug that it is proper to exhibit, as well as the best and least disagreeable form in which it may be given. Then again, in reference to the making of so simple a matter as a bread and water poultice, this is either one of the most comforting and useful of local remedies, or most irritating and useless, according as it is well or ill made: no mother, therefore, ought to be ignorant how to make it; and yet how few possess this knowledge. But more than this, in time of real illness, to carry out the prescriptions of the medical adviser himself, requires a certain amount of information bearing upon the preparation and application of remedial agents, such for instance as leeches, blisters, and baths,—which it is most important and necessary the parent should be furnished with. It would therefore appear desirable to say a few words even upon medicine and remedies, with which a mother should make herself familiar, that she may not only administer to the trifling ailments of her children with safety, but that she may be enabled to give efficiency and success to the prescriptions of the medical attendant, when disease of an important and serious character attacks them.

Here perhaps is the best and most appropriate

place to remark upon the mode of administering medicine itself to children. There is great difficulty sometimes in getting a child to take its medicine. I believe this in most instances to be the fault of the parent. If you are only firm in your manner as well as kind, you will always, unless in a very obstinate child indeed, succeed. With such there is only one resource, and that is the employment of the medicine spoon, the invention of Dr. A. T. Thomson, by whom it is thus described: "It consists of a spoon with a hollow handle opening at the top, and also into the bowl of the spoon, which is covered with a hinged lid, but is open at the apex. The spoon is made in the form of a wedge, in order to force the teeth apart when resistance is made to its introduction into the mouth; and it is rounded at the corner to avoid injuring the tongue and gums. When any fluid is poured into the spoon, and the lid shut down, the pressure of the atmosphere upon the fluid, at the opening near the apex, prevents it from running out of the spoon, as long as the orifice at the upper end of the handle is firmly compressed by the thumb of any person; but as soon as the thumb is removed, the fluid is projected with considerable force from the spoon. When the spoon is to be used the head of the child must be steadied by an attendant, who should also compress the nostrils, which obliges

the mouth to be opened for the facility of breathing. The spoon is then to be introduced into the mouth of the child by another person holding it in one hand, and at the same time keeping down the arms of the child with his other hand. The back of the spoon is then to be gently pressed upon the tongue, and the thumb being removed from the opening of the handle, the air rushes in, and projects the medicine into the gullet, whence it is instantly conveyed into the stomach.”

SECT. I. APERIENT MEDICINE.

One of the greatest errors of the nursery is the too frequent and indiscriminate exhibition by the mother or nurse of purgative medicine. Various are the forms in which it is given; perhaps, amongst a certain class, the little powder obtained from the chemist is the most frequent, as it is certainly the most injurious, from its chief ingredient being calomel. With such persons the choice of the aperient, or the dose, or the exact condition of the health, or whether it is an aperient at all that is required, are considerations which never for one moment enter their minds: a little medicine is thought necessary, because it is evident the child is not well, and a purgative or a little white powder is forthwith given. I have known a nurse thoughtlessly give a large dose of

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