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Although the lancing of the gums, to make it intelligible to a non-professional person, requires a long description, it is, in point of fact, a simple affair, is soon performed, and gives but little pain.

63. If teething cause convulsions, what ought to be done?

The first thing to be done (after sending for a medical man) is to freely dash cold water upon the face, and to sponge the head with cold water, and as soon as warm water can be procured, to put him into a warm bath of 98 degrees Fahrenheit. For the precautions to be used in putting a child into a warm bath, see the answer to question on “Warm baths.”

No family where there are young children, should be without Fahrenheit’s thermometer. If a thermometer be not at hand, you must plunge your own elbow into the water: a comfortable heat for your elbow will be the proper heat for the infant. He must remain in the bath for a quarter of an hour, or until the fit be at an end. The body must, after coming out of the bath, be wiped with warm and dry and coarse towels; he ought then to be placed in a warm blanket. The gums must be lanced, and cold water should be applied to the head. An enema, composed of table salt, of olive oil, and warm oatmeal gruel—in the proportion of one tablespoonful of salt, of one of oil, and a teacupful of gruel—ought then to be administered, and should, until the bowels have been well opened, be repeated every quarter of an hour; as soon as he comes to himself a dose of aperient medicine ought to be given.