Mix and give one-half teaspoonful every two hours for a child one year old.  Shake bottle.

3.  But the best treatment I know is the following:  Go to any good drug store and get a fifty-cent bottle of vapo-cresolene.  Burn this, according to the directions given on the bottle in the evening.  Use a small granite cup, put about one-third of an inch of the medicine in this, set cup on a wire frame above a lamp, (can buy a regular lamp with the medicine) close windows and let the child inhale the fumes.  This will give the patient a good night’s sleep.  I have used this for years, and know it is good and effective.  A tea made of chestnut leaves is said to be good, and is often used as a home remedy.  The leaves of the chestnut that we eat, not the horse-chestnut.

Diet.—­This is an extremely important part of the treatment.  As the child vomits frequently, especially after eating, the food is generally vomited, so there should be frequent feeding in small quantities.  The food should be digestible and nourishing.  Milk is a good food for older children.  In nursing infants they should be nursed oftener, especially if they vomit soon after nursing.  In older children, you must not feed too heavy and hearty foods; meat and potatoes should not be given to young children having the disease.  When vomiting is severe the food should be fluid and given often.  The child must be nourished.  If this disease occurs in the winter the person attacked, after he is seemingly well, must be careful not to take cold.  The condition of the mucous membrane of the air tube after an attack of this disease, makes it very easy for the person to contract inflammation of that part and have in consequence laryngitis, bronchitis, or pneumonia.  Thc cough in very many cases will last all winter without any additional cold being added.

[184 Mothers’ remedies]

Diphtheria.—­Diphtheria is an acute disease and always infectious.  There is a peculiar membrane which forms on the tonsils, uvula, soft palate and throat and sometimes in the larynx and nose.  It may form in other places such as in the vagina, bowels, on wounds or sores of the skin.  I once cut off the fingers for a child under the care of another doctor.  The child came down with diphtheria, and the membrane formed on the fingers.  Also it is often epidemic in the cold autumn months.  Its severity varies with different epidemics.  Children from two to fifteen years old are most frequently attacked with it.  Catarrhal inflammations of the respiratory mucous membrane predisposes to it.

Cause.—­The exciting cause is a bacillus called after the discoverers—­Klebs-Loeffler—­and this may be communicated directly to another person from the membrane or discharges from the nose and mouth, secretions of convalescents, or from the throat of normal persons.  The local condition (lesion) may be a simple catarrhal inflammation, or a greenish or gray exudate, involving chiefly the tonsils, pharynx, soft palate, nose, larynx and trachea, less often the conjunctiva and alimentary tract.  It is firmly adherent at first and leaves a bleeding surface when detached; later it is soft and can be removed.