Individual experience is hardly adequate in this connection, since mehena neonatorum is but rarely encountered. My own observations are limited to three cases; in two, sepsis was the cause and both term inated fatally; the third case, in which the cause was undiscoverable, made a complete recovery.
However the very numerous publications of later years, concern ing the results of gelatine therapy, seem to promise a brighter prognosis.. Since gelatine does not cure sepsis, the results of its therapeutic exhibi tion argue for the opinion that only a part of the cases of meltena are to be attributed to sepsis.
Treatment can, of course, avail in only a part of the cases of mehrna. The best results have followed the use of gelatine. Merck's absolutely sterile (otherwise danger of tetanus) 10 per cent. gelatine is injected subcutaneously, under aseptic precautions, 10-25 c.c. (2-6 drams) and possibly 2-3 times daily. The needle wound is covered with gauze and sealed with adhesive or collodion. It the same time gelatine may be given by the mouth, in a 2-3 per cent. solution, a teaspoonful hourly or
25-50 c.c. (1-2 ounces) per rectum. Formerly, liquor Ferri sesqui chlorati (P. G.) in per cent. mucilaginous solution (one teaspoonful hourly, or fluid extract of ergot, 0.25 c.c. (ni, 4) in two ounces of water, one teaspoonful every hour were recommended. In place of the last named drug, ergotin may be used subcutaneously. 13ecause of the rapid fall of the body temperature, the children should be wrapped in absorbent cotton and flannels and kept warm by means of thermo phores and hot bottles (not applied to the abdomen, but best to the lower extremities). Local applications of cold are not to be used. The admin istration of small quantities of tea or the subcutaneous injection of physiological salt solution is recommended to support the heart, when large quantities of blood have been lost.
In cases of spurious melrena, the source of the bleeding, if acces sible, is to receive appropriate treatment.