en when the doctor administers it himself, the parents must fully
recognise the fact that, inasmuch as the child may die during a fit
quite independently of breathing chloroform, so the occurrence of that
catastrophe during its employment is not to be made a subject of
self-reproach to them, or of blame to the doctor.

But you may ask whether there are no _signs_ of that disturbance of the
nervous system, by which you can judge beforehand that the occurrence of
convulsions is probable. In proportion to the tender age of a babe, the
greater is the probability, as I have already stated, that convulsions
will be induced by slight causes, especially by such as digestive
troubles. Unless you are aware of the phraseology that used at any rate
to be common among nurses, you may be much alarmed at being told that
the child who had seemed scarcely unwell has been very much convulsed,
when all that is meant is that the child has shown some of the signs
that threaten convulsions--has had, in short, what in the time of our
grandmothers used to be called _inward fits_. A child thus affected lies
as though it were asleep, winks its imperfectly closed eyes, and gently
twitches the muscles of its face--a movement especially observable about
the lips, which are drawn as though into a smile. Sometimes, too, this
movement of the mouth is seen during sleep, and poets have told us that
it is the angels' whisper which makes the babe to smile--I am sorry that
its meaning in plain prose should be so different. If this condition
increases, the child breathes with difficulty, its respiration sometimes
seems for a moment almost stopped, and a livid ring surrounds the mouth.
At every little noise the child wakes up; it makes a gentle moaning,
brings up the milk while sleeping, or often passes a great quantity of
wind, especially if the stomach is gently rubbed. When the disorder of
the digestion, on whatever cause it depended, is removed, these symptoms
speedily subside, nor is there much reason to fear general convulsions
so long as no more serious symptoms show themselves. There is more cause
for apprehension, however, when the thumbs are drawn into the palm,
either habitually or during sleep; when the eyes are never more than
half-closed during sleep; when the twitching of the muscles is no longer
confined to the angles of the mouth, but affects the face and
extremities; when the child awakes with a sudden start, its face growing
flushed or livi