THRUSH or APHTILE is a disease to which young children are particularly liable. It is a disease of the mucous membrane of the mouth and fences, and manifests itself in the form of small points, rings, conical or hemispherical elevations. These some times increase in size, and become large spots, which are covered with a membrane of milk or pearl-white colour passing into a gray or yellowish colour. This membranous matter is of a more or less soft consistence, and varies. in thickness. It is at first firmly adherent to the mucous membrane, but eventually peels off, leaving the mucous membrane uninjured. These spots are found on the Inner edge of the lips, on the cheek, the gums and the palate; on tho upper and lower surface of the tongue, in the throat, and In the cesophapui down to the stomach.
On placing this membranous secretion under the microscope, it is found to consist of epithelial cella, a certain amount of exuded matter, and of the filaments and spores of a fungus known by the name of Oidium albi cans. OIDIUM, in NAT. HIST. DIV.] The filaments of the fungus are cylindrical, elongated, straight, or curved and tubular. The interior of the tube is transparent. In the midst of these filaments are found minute bodies composed of two to four oval cells. These are the germinating spores from which originate the true spores; which lie together frequently in masses and vary in number according to the age of the fungus.
There is no doubt that thrush entirely depends on the presence of this fungus. It appears, however, that certain states of the system invite their attacks. When children are weakly or have been subject to derangement of the bowels from any cause, the fungus appears to find a fit nidus for its development. In some cases the irritation pro duced by the fungus engenders inflammation which ends in ulceration, and this may spread and even produce destructive effects.
Old people as well as children are subject to attacks of the same fungus when the conditions are present which invite their attacks. Such being the nature of thrush, it is very clear that it is not critical of any general state of the system.
Thrush is often confounded with various affections of the mouth, such as idiopathic inflammation with ulceration, accumulation of epithelial cells, the fur of the tongue, and the remains of food especially milk, from all of which it may be easily distinguished by the presence of the filaments and spores of the fungus.
In the treatment, the object should be to destroy the fungus by external application, and to rectify the diseased condition of the child. A dilute solution of nitrate of silver painted over the aphthous spots has been found useful as an external application. Acidity of the stomach and bowels may be corrected by the carbonates of potash, magnesia, or soda. The preparations of iron with cod-liver oil are amongst the best remedies for the constitutional state in which thrush Occurs.
(Iiiichemeiater On Animal and Vegetable Parasites, translated by Dr. Lankester.) THUG (from Hindustanee eltagna, to deceive) means a deceiver, and is the special appellation of secret murderers in India. Ortheir origin nothing can be mid with any degree of certainty. The Thugs theiniselves refer it to the remotest antiquity, and there is no doubt that the ceremonies with which they carry on their murderous trade can be traced as far back as the Kidike Purana, where we find them described with the utmost accuracy. Their gangs, consisting of from ten to two or three hundred men of all races, castes, sects,ancl religions, yet all joining in the worship of Kali, moved about all parts of India, sacrificing to their tutelary goddess every victim that they could seize, and sharing the plunder among themselves. Still they shed no blood,
except when forced by cireurnstancos; murder being their religion, the performance of its duties required secrecy, and the instrument of death was a rope or a handkerchief, which could excite no suspicion. They were stranglers. Every gang had its leader, the Jemadar or Sirder; its teacher, the Guru, whose duty it was to initiate the novice into the secret of using the roomol, or handkerchief. Then came the Ithuttoks, that is, stranglers; and the Sothas, or entrappers ; and at hat the Lughaees, or gravediggers. In a country like India, the striking character of whose inhabitants is an almost incredible apathy, it was easy for them to commit the most outrageous murders without exciting the interest of the victim's relations. The immense jungles which border the roads afforded the Lughaees every facility for effec tually concealing the bodies; and the prevailing custom of travelling in parties prevented the designs of the Sotha from being suspected, whenever be succeeded in offering the protection of his Jemadar to travellers whom their wealth induced him to entrap. The Thugs generally assumed the appearance of merchants, which increased the confidence of their victims, whom they despatched with the greatest celerity whenever they found a convenient place. Whilst the Bhuttotes arranged themselves in a manner to effect their purpose with facility, the Lughaees dug the hole; and at a given signal the noose was passed round the neck of the traveller, aid, being taken unawares, he was strangled without being able to make any resistance. He was then thrown into the hole, and large incisions were made in the abdomen to prevent the corpse from swelling, and the whole was covered over with a layer of dry sand, another of thorns and bushes, and over all was thrown the earth which had been dug out, which they smoothed down so as not to attract the notice of travellers. After every murder they offered a sacrifice to Kali, which they called Tapounee. It was performed in the following manner :—A large sheet was spread over the cleanest spot they could select, and on thisswas cast a pile consisting of one rupee and four alias' worth of coarse sugar ; near this they placed the conse crated pickaxe (an instrument sacred to Siva and Bhfivant), and a piece of silver as a rapa darsana, or silver offering. The leader then sat down on the sheet, and the best stranglers placed themselves on each side of him with their faces to the west. They then distributed the sugar and ate it in solemn silence. But for this, as well as other cere monies, we must refer to the works of Colonel Sleeman and Captain Meadows, as well as to an article in the 130th number of the 'Edinburgh Review.' We have already observed that Thugs were found exercising their fearful trade in all parts of India. In the Deccan they were called PhAnalgars (from Sanskrit pdsa, a noose) or nooscrs, and on them we have a very interesting paper in the 13th volume of the Asiatic Researches. Their customs are the same as those of the northern Thugs; but, having fewer Mohturunedans among them, they are more strict observers of the duties which their religion imposes; they kill neither women, nor old men, nor any of the subjects which the Kalika Puri= (in the' Itudhira AdyAya') declares to be unfit for a sacrifice to Devt. In the same volume of the' Asiatic Researches there is another article on them, by Mr. Shakespear : both were written in 1816. .