Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Georgia Regents University

510 Editorial. [MarchDo Children bear Disease better than Adults fTo suppose that children can bear disease better thanadults, is to admit that the weak have more powers ofresistance than the strong ;that an unfinished fortificationis better adapted to resist attacks than one already completed.And yet, we continually hear persons manifestinga desire that their children might take the measles,hooping-cough, etc., while young, so as to be rid of subsequentdanger ! This is a radical error. Children shouldbe kept from sickness as long as possible, for no one canpredict the result of what might at first seem to be themost trivial affection.Common sense should lead us to avoid sickness at alltimes, and at any age.'If we carefully keep our childrenfrom visiting houses in which there is any sickness, andremove them from districts affected with epidemics ; if,in short, we use clue diligence in avoiding all knowncauses of sickness, we shall have nothing to reproachourselves, when, notwithstanding such precautionarymeasures, they are overtaken by disease. The very factthat children are more prone to sickness than others,should incite parents to great watchfulness in regard totheir hygienic condition, theircleanliness, their clothing,their food, their exercise, their supply of fresh air, insolation,etc., etc.The best evidence that children do not bear sickness aswell as adults, is to be found in our mortuary statistics,which reveal a frightful loss of ljfe among infants andchildren. This is equally true with regard to the loweranimals and plants. The more tender the plant the morefeeble are its powers of resistance, and the more liable itis to disease. L. A. D.