It is manifestly impossible to review the entire field of these affections, as the premature infant may have all the diseases of full term children. Several affections, however, are peculiarly severe in the premature infant. First. Sepsis occurs in a great many, and usually comes from the bowel, either as an intoxication or a general […]

The premature or debile infant requires infinitely greater care and watchfulness than the healthy newborn. It is more liable to sepsis, to digestive and respiratory complications, to ophthalmia, and, in general, exhibits a weakness against all noxious influences. The writer cannot here enter into a discussion of the various methods of treatment, but will describe […]

At first the couveuse was used only for premature and congenitally feeble infants, but its success with these soon caused the indications to be extended, until the instrument was abused it is being employed for nearly all the ills of early infancy. Then the error was recognized. And recently Delestre has stated that the couveuse […]

This has given us a great deal of trouble, and those familiar with the difficulties attending the natural ventilation of houses will appreciate the obstacles met here. The change in the room temperature, the extremes of outside temperature, the faulty construction of houses, the opening and closing of doors, the dry days, the wet, muggy […]

The heating system consists of a water pan inside the box near its floor, connected with a boiler on the right outside the chamber. This is in all respects similar to any hot water heating system. The premature infant requires a warm, moist atmosphere, of a definite tension, and also a sure and constant amount […]

In the middle ages premature infants were wrapped in the skin of a sheep, with the wool on, or put in a jar of feathers. Later they were enveloped in cotton. Sterne, in the middle of the eighteenth century, relates how the child of a physician was raised by the “same artifice that one used […]