Great success in extreme cases of en teritis by the cold bath at a temperature of OS° F. Brunon (La Normandie Ned., Aug. 1, '93).
A cold wet pack may occasionally with advantage replace the cool bath where circumstances are not convenient for the employment of the latter. Of late years the irrigation of the colon with cool water has been employed in cases of hyperpyrexia. It is unquestionably a more powerful method than either bath or pack, and when used with discretion may prove of more value. Its action, however, is less under the control of the physician than that of baths, and serious depression of the nerve-centres may re sult from the employment of too cold or too long-continued irrigation.
Should the prostration become ex treme, or hydrencephaloid symptoms make their appearance, subcutaneous in jections of a sterilized normal saline solu tion, as described in the article on CHOLERA INFANTUM, ought to be em ployed. In severe cases three or four in jections a day of 30 cubic centimetres each should be given. Not only do these injections stimulate the flagging circu lation, but they dilute the toxins in the blood and favor their elimination through the excretory organs; in many instances they check in a remarkable way the symptoms of nervous irritation.
DIETARY.—For the first twelve or twenty-four hours, according to the se verity of the case, only cool sterile water should be permitted to the infant. After this period a weak sugar-of-milk solution may be given in small quantities to in fants under three months; to those over three months a thin barley- or rice- water sweetened with sugar of milk may be allowed. Great caution must be exer cised with all albuminous foods so long as the stools retain their offensive odor.
White-of-egg or albumin- water forms an excellent method of administering an easily-assimilated protekl. To prepare it ' the white of an egg is to be shaken up in a flask with from 6 to 12 ounces of water; the solution is then to be strained through muslin, and a little salt and sugar of milk added. A carefully-pre pared whey may also be allowed, and is often relished. In older children raw meat-juice in small amount, a weak broth, or one of the peptonized foods may be administered with advantage. Milk in all forms should be forbidden until the stools begin to assume a normal appearance; its employment should then be resumed only gradually. As Siebert has emphasized in a recent paper, under feeding of the infant with milk-sugar solution, thin gruel, or strained soup can do little harm; while milk even in small quantities can aid the infection, but not the nourishment of the body.
HYGIENE.—During the attack the infant should, as far as possible, be con fined to its cot. Soft unirritating flannel should be worn next the skin. Great care should be exercised lest the buttocks become irritated by the discharges, diapers should be changed promptly as soon as soiled, and the application of some greasy emollient will frequently prevent the development of the ery thematous and sometimes ulcerative con dition which in these cases is so liable to occur. The infant should be allowed all the fresh air possible. As soon as the violence of the attack has passed off, it should be sent, if practicable, either to the sea-side or to a bracing country- or mountain- air.