The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-21 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE
DISEASES MOST FATAL TO CHILDREN,
?re. By P. Hood.
A good practical work on the diseases of children
has long been a desideratum in medical literature. It
is now nearly fifty years since Dr. Michael Under-
wood published his treatise on the subject, and from
that period up to the present time we have had no
work exclusively devoted to the consideration of
these diseases which can be considered as a text-book.
The various discoveries which have been made in
medical science since the days of Underwood have
rendered his work obsolete and comparatively useless,
while the manner in which diseases generally, but
more especially the diseases of children, have been
modified by the changes which have taken place in
our social condition during the course of the last half
century, has rendered some new work on the treat-
ment of these diseases absolutely necessary. We re •
joice to find that the subject has fallen into the hands
of Mr. Hood. Possessing high scientific attainments,
habits of acute and judicious observation, considerable
experience in the treatment of the diseases of child-
hood, and a fund of shrewd common sense, he is the
very man to supply the want which has been so long
felt in medical literature ; and accordingly he has
furnished us with the very best book that has ap-
peared on the subject since the commencement
of the present century. His chapter on irri-
tation is adnairalde, and should be not only
read, but studied, by every medical practitioner.
We entirely concur with him in reprehending the
practice of attributing every disease of infancy to
inflammation, and attacking it at once with leeches,
calomel, and depleting remedies, and we rejoice to
find that the Broussais theory is rapidly going out of
vogue, and that more rational views as to the nature
of disease are beginning to find favour with the
profession.
" The mode of treatment developed in the following
pages is founded on the principle that the diseases of
children, and of adults also, proceed from irritation, con-
sidered in a general sense, as distinct from inflammation,
and indicating an opposite course of treatment. Having
so frequently witnessed the beta fieial effects of this
tu
mode of treatment, not only in the diseases of children
expressly mentioned in the following pages, but in others
also,
ritu rwhethercil o
oe
publishc rri in
the
present
work, with the view 0
or adults, I have
ventured
calling the attention of both medical practitioners and
parents more expressly to the subject."
The advocates of the depleting treatment say that
irritation leads to inflammation, but in reply Mr.
Hood observes : " It is possible that this may occur
in the diseases of adults; but my experience leads me
to doubt if ever it occurs in the diseases of infants."
Our own experience, during the course of a tolerably
extensive practice, fully bears out the truth of Mr.
observations. As a proof that convulsions
arise not from inflammation, but from irritation, he
relates the following cases—
"lt is related that ,iobleman of the highest rank,
after anxiously waiting many years for a son and heir,
had at length his wishes gratified. The christening was
to be celebrated with great pomp; and to make it more
imposing, it was determined that it should be performed
at night. The apartments were lighted with the utmost
brilliancy ; the company were all assembled, and the
infant duke was brought into the drawing-room. The
sudden glare of light caused almost instantaneous con-
vulsions, from which the child never recovered.
" Dr. Garthshore's son married a lady very highly
connected, and her son—provided she had one—was to
inherit a large estate. Consequently, when her first son
was born, there were great rejoicings at his christening;
and a bishop, who was related to the mother, was invited
to perform the ceremony. When he arrived, the ser-
vants knocked so loudly at the door that the child was
frightened into convulsions, from which it never re-
covered, but died snort after."
The following observations on the consequences of
over study, and on the ill effects which too frequently
arise from gymnastic exercises, are worthy the at-
tentive consideration of every parent.
" As, in the earlier stages of life, the organs of respi-
ration suffer most from irritation, so, in children of more
advanced age, the brain is the organ which most fre-
quently suffers from increased nervous excitement.
" The strong desire manifested by many parents to
make their children cleve? is too common at this period;
and the means employed to effect this is frequently one
of the causes of functional derangement of the brain, in
consequence of its being forcibly and unnaturally ex-
cited. It is in children of acute sensibility that attacks
of this nature are usually witnessed. Such children.are
mostly of slighter figure, and are more easily excited
than those of a robust frame. They are ' precocious
children,' and their temperament is chiefly nervous.
" I may here remark that gymnastic exercises are
often adopted to make up for the deficiency of the more
natural and healthy exercise of walking and running;
and are looked upon as even more than equivalent to
those free and unconstrained movements, which nature
dictates to the young. Those artificial substitutes for
natural exercise have a very baneful tendency. All ex-
ercise is hurtful to the young which does not equally
bring into action the whole of the muscles of the body
at the same time. In this system, there is violent and
forced action of the muscles of the arms at one time, and
of the legs at another, so that some portion or other of
the body must, of necessity, be overstrained;—besides
the absurdity of making children perform that amount
of labour (pleasure it is called) which is scarcely safe
for adults. It is as unsafe
to
disturb the healthy equi-
librium of muscular action in the young, as it is to
demand of them that exercise of the brain, which should
only be looked for at a more reature age, when the body
has experienced a corresponding development."
Mr. Hood has conferred a great obligation upon
society at large by the publication of this really use-
ful and thoroughly practical treatise. That his
positions will be attacked by the men of one idea who
see inflammation, and inflammation only i . n every dis-
ease, is to be expected ; but let any impartial ob-
server compare the results of the two modes of treat-
ment, and he will, not fail to be convinced that the
views of Mr. Hood are correct. The day is not far
-distant when those views will be universally adopte 3,
and when that shall be the case, the present great and
frightfully disproportionate rate of mortality in chil-
dren will disappear. We recommend this work to
the attentive study of every parent and of every me-
dical practitioner.

DE BOHAN ; or, TIJ E COURT CONSPIRATOR.
.13u Euge,e Sue.
The stealthy course of time has effected wondrous
changes, but far more marvellous are those which
follow in the march of intellect. Now, in the nine-
teenth century, we seem to inhabit a different world
from our ancestors—we can look back with the eye of
wisdom, we may look forward with experience•fh-
or
our guide, but, above all, we can,look,around us wit
out prejudice or mistrust. The clouds of error no
longer obscure the light of truth—old animosities are
eoftened—the ill-feelings of the past forgotten—all