The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 548 of 653exposed to such an infiuence. This is the reason why children thaare chiefly fed on farinaceous soups, bread, potatoes, easily becscrofulous, the more certainly the smaller the quantity of milk twere allowed at the same time. Potatoes, and next to them farinaceous food, are the articles of diet to which scrofulosis is chieattributed. Children who are nursed by healthy mothers, can likewise become scrofulous if they are fed too often, or if they aretoo long at the breast, which is so often done in the country bywomen who are anxious to prevent another conception. Moreover,scrofulosis is not perhaps directly caused, but decidedly promotenot only by improper food, but likewise by an insuflicient supplyof fresh air, want of exercise, living in damp dwellings, inattento the skin.Scrofulosis. 633If hereditary Bcrofulosis and the last-mentioned circumstancesmeet, scrofulosis reaches the acme of its development. In ouropinion, improper nutrition is a much more frequent cause of scroulosis than hereditary descent. Parents generally bring up theirchildren as they had been brought up themselves ; the absurditiesof their own parents have become engrafted upon them with themother's milk, and the grandmother generally stands by the cradleas a faithful watch-dog to prevent the old routine from being departed from in the least particular. In this point of view it isoften proper to say, not that scrofulosis has been inherited, butabsurd views concerning the bringing up of children have beentransmitted from one generation to another. As an evidence of thetruth of this statement, we mention the circumstance that the firborn in a family is apt to have a feeble and sickly constitution,whereas children born at a subsequent period, are healthy ; or thsome children who were brought up on improper food, becomescrofulous, whereas no sign of scrofula is manifested in childrenwith whom more rational maxims are pursued.Scrofulosis always breaks out in childhood. It seldom manifestsitself before the second year. Children that are very large andbloated in the first two years, almost always become scrofulous aa later period ; children with firm muscles and slender forms arescarcely ever attacked with the disease. Scrofulosis scarcely evebreaks out after the second dentition, still less frequently afteage of pubescence.SytnptoinH and Course. It is very difllcult to furnish a complete picture of the scrofulous disease, for the reason that it mtiBSts itself in so many diilerent localities and diveraitied forhence a few general statements will have to sufiice. Scrofula chilocalizes itself in theLymphatic Glandular System. Either we find a more or lessextensive hypertrophied degeneration, or else an exudation tendinto suppuration, the surrounding cellular tissue being more or lesinvolved in this process. In the former case the swollen glandsmay remain unchanged for many years until they gradually disappear, most commonly at the age of pubescence, leaving only a fewtrifling remnants of diseased structure. The inflammatory exudation is seldom deposited in an acute form ; generally the glandsswell slowly and without pain, the swelling sometimes even remainhttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt