THRUSH

In Medicine. This disease consists in small white ulcers upon the tongue, palate, and gums, and is common in infants who are ill-fed or brought up by hand. It is apt to extend through the whole course of the mucous membrane lining the alimentary canal, exciting fetid eructations and flatulency, with a troublesome diarrhoea, and sometimes proves fatal. The treatment consists in giving a gentle emetic of ipecacuanha, and keeping the bowels clear and open with castor oil, or rhubarb and magnesia. The strictest attention should be paid to the diet, which should consist of milk and light farinaceous food. Thrush. In Ornithology, one of the largest and most melodious of our native song birds; the type of the genus Ttirdjis, Linnaeus. It is not migratory, but is supposed to quit the more northern parts of England in winter for the southern provinces. It makes its nest in March; lays four or five blue eggs, spotted with black at the larger end. It feeds on berries, insects, and shell-snails; and often selects a particular kind of stone against which it breaks the shell of the snail, and near which a great quantity of fragments of the shells may be found. [s. 1247]