d that they render the
situation of such children much more safe; and when teething is
completed they will generally disappear spontaneously; or, if they
should not, they will readily do so by proper medical treatment. I have
no doubt that many a child's life has been saved by the appearance and
continuance of these eruptions; and so sensible are medical men of the
benefit derived from them, that in individuals in whom they do not
appear, and in whose family there exists a predisposition to the
disease now under our consideration, an issue or seton, in the arm or
neck, has sometimes been made, and had a remarkable influence in
warding off this affection. Dr. Cheyne refers to the circumstance of
ten children in one family having died of this disease; the eleventh,
for whom this measure was employed, having been preserved.

Stimulants, throughout the whole period of infancy and childhood, and
of every description, must be prohibited. Children nursed by drunken
parents, and who have indulged in the use of spirituous liquors during
suckling, are never healthy; are the frequent subjects of convulsions,
and many of them die eventually of water in the head. The practice of
administering spirits to the child itself; a habit unfortunately not
very uncommon among the lower classes; produces a similar result.
Narcotics may operate in a like manner: they derange the whole system
when persevered in, particularly affecting the brain; promote disease;
and sometimes give rise to the one in question. This remark should be
borne in mind by the mother, as Godfrey's Cordial and other
preparations of opium are too often kept in the nursery, and secretly
given by unprincipled nurses to quiet a restless and sick child.

All causes of mental excitement should be carefully avoided, and
particularly the too early or excessive exercise of the intellectual
faculties. If the child be endowed with a precocious intellect, the
parent must restrain rather than encourage its exercise. Nothing is
more likely to light up this disease in a constitution predisposed to
it, than a premature exertion of the brain itself.

MATERNAL MANAGEMENT OF THE DISEASE.--The early detection of this
disease is of great importance. The chances that the medical treatment
will terminate successfully much depend upon the early and prompt
application of remedial means. The reason why these cases have so often
terminated fatally has arisen from the physician being consulted w