CONVULSIONS

is the term used to denote an attack of involuntary muscular action, in which a stage of rigidity is followed by one of alternate contraction and relaxation. In these attacks consciousne is often lost. The poor use the term “internal convulsions" to denote gripes. The cause of convulsions is some irritation of the nervous system, which may be conveyed to the brain from the skin ps or be due to the blood supply to tho brain containing some impurity, or be due to disease or injury of the brain itself. Thus teething, indigestible food or worms or Cl in the clothing may induce convulsions, or the bl may be poisoned by the onset of pneumonia, measles or other fever, or the nervous system injured by an attack of infantile paralysis. The treatment is to detect and if po ible remove the cause. The child should be stripped, and then placed in a hot bath containing mustard and kept in until the arms of the nurse begin to nee Medical aid should meanwhile be obtained, but if not obtainable an enema should be given next and a dose of grey powder placed on the tongue. [s. 346]