The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV | Page 5

CHRONIC NASAL CATARRH--CHRONIC RHINITIS CHRONIC
DISCHARGE FROM THE NOSE
Some children have a nasal discharge during all of their childhood. It is
usually worse during the winter months. It may be a thin, watery
discharge or a thick, nasty, yellow discharge.
It is a condition that is very frequently neglected even by the family
physician. This is unfortunate because it may lead to serious disease,
permanent damage sometimes being done to the hearing, the speech,
the smell, and to the lungs of the child.
It may be caused by adenoids; disease of the bones or tissues in the
nose; foreign bodies in the nose; or it may occur in children whose
nutrition is bad. It may result from frequent acute attacks of "cold in the
head." It also occurs in other less important conditions. The foreign
bodies which usually cause a chronic nasal discharge are,--buttons,
peas, beans, beads, paper balls, flies and bugs, cherry-stones, small
pieces of coal, or stone, cork or other material. A child gets hold of a
shoe-button for example and pushes it into its nostrils. In the effort to
get it out the child pushes it further in. It may or may not cause pain at
the time, and it may be overlooked, but shortly the mother will notice a
discharge from one nostril. This discharge becomes thick and foul and
when an investigation is made the button is found embedded firmly in
the nose. It is sometimes quite difficult to get the button out and this
should always be done by a physician.
Treatment.--Remove the cause first then treat the catarrh. If it is a
product of a constitutional disease that causes general poor health, such
as tuberculosis, syphilis, or scrofula, the child will need "building up"
and a decided change of climate. Foreign bodies must be removed,
adenoids taken out, large tonsils excised, and malformations of the
nasal bones operated upon. The catarrh will in many cases be cured by
removing its cause; if, however, it should persist it must be treated for

some time with appropriate solutions. These solutions and the
directions as to the method of giving them must be given by a
physician, because there is great danger of carrying the disease to
deeper structures if given wrongly.
SUMMARY:--
1st.--A chronic discharge from the nose is a sign that something is
wrong and should be carefully and thoroughly investigated.
2nd.--The cause can usually be found out and the proper treatment will
cure it.
3rd.--If the condition is neglected it may ruin the health of the child for
the whole period of its life.
NERVOUS OR PERSISTENT COUGH
Cough in an infant or growing child is usually the result of a cold and
the structure affected is some part of the nose, throat or bronchi. It is a
comparatively simple matter to discover just where the trouble is and to
prescribe the appropriate remedy and effect a cure.
There is another type of cough, however, that is of quite a different
character. This cough will begin as an ordinary cough and it will only
be discovered that it is not an ordinary cough because nothing will
apparently cure it. We mean that the child is given cough remedies that
usually cure a cold, is kept in the house and carefully watched for a
sufficiently long period to justify a cure, and yet, despite this care and
attention, the cough remains the same. The child is not sick, the
appetite is good, there is no fever, it plays and seems to enjoy good
health, yet for weeks and frequently for months the annoying cough
hangs on. It is as a rule worse at night. It begins soon after the child
falls asleep and spoils the entire night's rest or a great part of it. It may
be a dry, hard, hacking cough, or a croupy, harsh bark. It may come in
spells with a considerable interval between them, during which time the
child falls asleep, or it may be almost constant, not quite severe enough
to rouse the child, but bad enough to spoil the child's rest and the rest of

the mother. If this condition lasts for a long time, as it occasionally
does, the health of the little patient is apt to suffer from loss of sleep.
Treatment.--These children should be taken to a good physician and
thoroughly examined. Special care should be devoted to investigating
the condition of the nose, throat, ear, stomach, heart, and lungs.
A very large majority of these coughs are caused by adenoid growths in
the back part of the nose. The child may not look like an adenoid child,
nor may it breathe through its mouth when asleep, and it may have had
its adenoids removed, yet in spite of these contra-indications it may
have enough loose