The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-03
CHOLERA INFANTUM.

soaked in a mild solution OF some ef-
fective germicide-carbolic acid or cor
rosive sublimate. for instance-before
they are sent out with the rest of the
family laundry, and care should be ex-
ercised in disposing of the water used
to wash the patient. Other appropri-
ate precautions will suggest them
selves when ii is remembered that the
intestines of the patient and their Sc
cretions are fairly alive with virulent
bacilli.
To prevent cholera infantum it is
necessary, first. to reduce the risk of
direct infection TO the minimum, and
secondly, to keep the child in good gen.
eral health, so that, in case OF chance
infection. it may be in a condition to
make a successful fight against the
disease. Both results may be attained
by a proper supervision of its food sup
ply. 1t must be fed intelligently and it
must get pure food-which means, not
food which merely looks good and
smells good, but food which is nourish
ing, easily digested and absolutely free
of all deleterious organisms.
1t is a lamentable fact. but one
which no observant physician will deny,
that mother-love causes almost as
many deaths among babies as mother
neglect. About the business of "rais-
tant profession, by immense odds, in
all the World-there has been grouped
a mass of traditions and superstitions
whose practical effect is a needless and
enormous increase in the infantile
death rate.
Ancient grandmothers, intrenched
behind the fact that they have raised
a dozen children and lost none" ap-
pear with all sorts OF ridiculous lore
regarding baby food and baby dress
ing, and it takes a great deal of firm
ness and ingenuity on the part of the
physician to combat them and put
them to rout. Too often he is put to
rout himself, and has to content him
self with rectifying the damage they
have worked.
The present writer was once called
in, for instance, to ease the last mo-
ments of poor little child whose life
was ending at four months The baby
had cholera infantum and was dying
of it, and nothing could be done but
make its death painless. And why was
it dying? Simply because its grand
mother-a presumably sane and intel
ligent woman-had insisted that it be
given a taste" of every dish eaten by
its mother, on the theory that it would
thus progress most easily and safely
from a diet of milk to one of adult
food. The poor childs digestive APP
paratus was broken down entirely by
this incredible barbarity, and stray
germs of cholera infantum found it an
easy victim. Yet If the grandmother
had been told she was directly and I'M
| mistakably responsible for the baby's
death she would have protested most
violently and. in all probability, would
have instituted an action for criminal
SANDER
Superstitions such as this are by no
means few, nor are they confined to
the ignorant. Many a mother of I'M
doubted intelligence provides her baby
with one of the rubber or ivory nipples
called 'comforters' or ''pacifiers." The
theory of this is that the ''pacifier' will
keep the baby quiet, divert it from
sucking its thumbs, and, by giving it
something to employ It's gums upon,
| help it to cut its teeth This is the
theory. In sober reality, the 'pacifier''
merely serves to make the baby queru-
lous and peevish, to teach it bad
habits, and TO fill it's mouth and body
with the germs of half dozen diseases
from cholera infantum to diphtheria
and from chicken pox to meningitis.
The baby is dumped into its peram-
bulatorY with ''pacifier" in it's club
by fist, and a nurse girl is told off to
take care of it. In a moment 1t drops
the 'pacifer" and the nurse girl res
cues the deadly implement from the
sidewalk. If she is careful, she wipes
II with her apron or handkerchief; If
not she jambs ii into the baby's mouth
without renovation. In either case,
there are ten chances to one that it is
fairly alive with germs. Wiping a
thing with an apron, or busting ii with
a brush. or washing it with soap, does
not rid it of the organisms of disease
The only way to do that effectively is
to boil it steadily for at least half an
hour. And whoever heard of a nurse
girl who boiled her charges "'pacifier'
for half an hour before putting it 10
its disgusting and nefarious uses?
In ''pacifiers," rubber rings, and
things of that sort cholera infantum
lies. One authority estimates that from
) to 10 per cent of all deaths among
infants less than two years old are due
to infections by such or similar means
The average child, luckily enough, has
an almost uncanny power for resisting
virulent organisms. Its hold upon life,
despite its physical weakness, is strong
and ii has a wonderful capacity for re-
cOvery. If that were not true, the
average child, in the face of it's almost
constant exposure, would die.
There is no truth whatever in the
common superstition that children
must have something on which to ex-
ercise their gums. The babys liking