But medicine alone will not cure rachitis. The treatment must be hygienic and dietetic, as well as medicinal. As we have seen already, the original aetiological factor present in the disease is defective food. This defect must be corrected. The food must be changed. Cow’s milk, as an exclusive diet, is, in these cases, inadmissible. Its tendency to form lactic acid simply feeds the morbid condition. All foods requiring an addition of sugar to make them palatable are injurious for the same reason.
If you take as atom of lactic acid and an atom of alcohol. But lactic acid is already in excess in the blood, and is creating mischief in all the tissues. To add more is to add fuel to the flame. For this reason al starchy foods ar pernicious, and this is why the great majority of the so-called “baby foods” fail to meet the requirements of these cases.
Undoubtedly, the nearest approach to an ideal substitute fort human milk, and certainly the one best adapted to the needs of a rachitis child, is the dextrinized food of Liebig. In the preparation of this food all of the starch of its constituents- wheat and malted barley -is transformed into dextrine and grape sugar. It therefore requires no additional sweetening. Being prepared from the entire grain, it is rich in phosphates and other earthy salts and al needed nitrogenous matters.
There are various preparations of malted foods in the market, but I am free to say that known as Mellin’s food to any other. Perhaps my preference for it is due to the fact that I am more familiar with it. Certain it is, that in the nearly twenty years that I have used Mellin’s food I have never seen a child become rachitis under it, while I have seen numerous cases that had become rickety under other foods restored to sound health by its use. It is more highly dextrinized than any other of the malted foods, and is more uniform in its preparation. When mixed with cow’s milk in due proportion, it fulfils every requirements for the full nutrition of a healthy child.
The brief time allotted to me precludes scientific comparison of different foods or even a mention of them. I have made no stronger to exhaust the subject which is here presented other in the matter of food or other aspects, but only to draw attention to certain points that to my mind needed emphasis, and to record my personal experience and individual observation in the matter of therapeutic and dietetic treatment.
DISCUSSION.
B.W. JAMES, M.D.: This is one of the diseases that will come under my idea of annihilation. I apprehend that the disease does not always originate from an insufficient amount of nourishment. There seems to be some abnormal condition of the body which requires a remedy. We must endeavor to cure the disease as we find it. The symptoms are: Sweating of the head; great irregularity in teething, showing that the osseous structure is not getting its proper amount of material for building up the teeth; and then there is likewise a determination of too much or too little material to one structure or another.
In the application of our remedies we endeavor to harmonize all the tissues and make them go an as nature intended throughout the economy. In regard to the best remedy, I fully coincide that it is Phosphorous. I have been in the habit of giving Calcarea phos, which answers every purpose, and is perhaps better in many cases. Frequently the glands of the intestinal tract are involved, and those of the neck and other parts of the body greatly disturbed, and Calcarea carb, is a magnificent remedy in that condition. An excellent remedy, where anaemia exists, is Baryta carb. Sulphur is an admirable remedy to add to the Calcarea. In many cases all our efforts will not enable us to change the condition of the system, and yet in many cases we can do a great amount of good by adopting Homoeopathic treatment.
DR. DUFFIELD: I had a case in my student days which was a very good illustration of this rachitic condition. It was a negro boy of 4 years. He was unable to stand; his legs were bowed and crossed, and he had a very large head on a very little neck. There was a hole through the spinal column, and the soft matter could be touched with the finger. His pulse was 204 and his temperature 105, and the pulsation of the heart was so pronounced that you could se it though the chest wall. Physicians of the opposite school said he could not live twenty-four hours. I had heard the lectures on Calcarea carb, and used it then. The next day I found my little patient was better, and as I went, day by day, he improved, until, finally, in the course of six months he was able to stand up and get around by holding on the chairs. I gave the Calcarea carb, in the third decimal trituration, at first once an hour and then once in three hours, and then every other day.
C.D. CRANK, M.D.: I think one mistake lies in the fact that rachitis is not recognized early enough. I will give you three symptoms in recognizing this disease: first, a peculiar watery discharge from the nose; second, a peculiar wakefulness and restlessness at night-touch the crib and the child will start; third, the sweating of the head. It may be rachitis; it may be tabes mesenterica. If the child lives long enough, it may be epilepsy. If you wait until the trouble to developed, you will have difficulty in treating it. Calcarea phos. is a grand remedy, and there is another which I resort to successfully. It is not medicine but food that feels the nervous centers. I refer to oil. Rub the child with the best Olive, oil, and feed it Cod-liver oil to build up its little organism.
R.N. TOOKER, M.D.: I am rather disappointed that no one has taken exception to some statement in my paper. I can only repeat what I said in the paper, that I think it a great mistake for the average American woman to nurse her babe beyond twelve months. her milk then becomes thin and watery,and the babe should not be nursed through the second summer. We have artificial foods that will be far better substitutes.
Now let me enter protest against another practice I find common among physicians, and that is correcting the acidity of the milk by keeping the milk in an alkaline condition by the addition of lime-water. It is a very irrational practice. If you want to correct the acidity, give soda, which is far better than time-water.
When the chairman solicited a paper from me, she limited me to fifteen minutes; and so, when I got to the matter of food, I found I had only a minute left to discuss it. If I had had time, I would have mentioned other foods that I regard very highly.
