een calomel; for, after taking it for two or three
days, profuse salivation was produced, with swollen tongue, inflamed
gums, etc., followed by ulceration of the gum, lips, and cheek. On
examining the denuded alveolar process, I found that a considerable
necrosis (death of the bone) had taken place, including the whole
anterior arch of the jaw from the first double tooth on the left side
to the eye-tooth on the right. By degrees the dead portion of bone was
raised, and became loose, when I found that the mischief was not
confined to the alveolar process, but comprised the whole substance of
the bone within the space just mentioned," etc. Surely the knowledge of
such a case as this would induce every prudent mother to exclude
calomel from her list of domestic nursery medicines.

Sect. III.--OPIATES.

This class of medicine is often kept in the nursery, in the forms of
laudanum, syrup of white poppies, Dalby's carminative, and Godfrey's
cordial.

The object with which they are generally given is to allay pain by
producing sleep; they are, therefore, remedies of great convenience to
the nurse; and I am sorry to be obliged to add, that, so exhibited,
they are but too often fatal to the little patient.

The fact is, that in the hands of the physician, there is no medicine
the administration of which requires greater caution and judgment than
opiates, both from the susceptibility of infants to their narcotic
influence, and their varying capability of bearing it; the danger,
therefore, with which their use is fraught in the hands of a nurse
should for ever exclude them from the list of domestic nursery
medicines.

Dalby's carminative and Godfrey's cordial are, perhaps, more
frequently used than any other forms; and some striking cases,
illustrative of the fatal results of exhibiting them indiscriminately,
and without medical sanction, are on record.[FN#21] The late Dr.
Clark, in his "Commentaries," mentions a case which he saw, where
"forty drops of Dolly's carminative destroyed an infant." Dr. Merriman
gives the following in a note in Underwood, "On the Diseases of
Children:"--

[FN#21] Two or three fatal cases, and upon which coroners' inquests
were held, have occurred within the last two years.

"A woman, living near Fitzroy Square, thinking her child not quite
well, gave it a dose of Godfrey's cordial, which she purchased at a
chemist's in the neighbourhood. In a very short time after taking it
t