Out of 50 cases
collected by Townsend 31 died and 19 recovered. The nature of the
disease is unknown, and postmortem examination reveals no
pathologic changes, although the general and not local nature of
the affection, its self-limited character, the presence of fever,
and the greater prevalence of the disease in hospitals, suggest
an infectious origin (Townsend). Kent a speaks of a new-born
infant dying of spontaneous hemorrhage from about the hips.
Infantile scurvy, or Barlow's disease, has lately attracted
marked attention, and is interesting for the numerous
extravasations and spontaneous hemorrhages which are associated
with it. A most interesting collection of specimens taken from
the victims of Barlow's disease were shown in London in 1895.
In an article on the successful preventive treatment of tetanus
neonatorum, or the "scourge of St. Kilda," of the new-born,
Turner says the first mention of trismus nascentium or tetanus
neonatorum was made by Rev. Kenneth Macaulay in 1764, after a
visit to the island of St. Kilda in 1758. This gentleman states
that the infants of this island give up nursing on the fourth or
fifth day after birth; on the seventh day their gums are so
clinched together that it is impossible to get anything down
their throats; soon after this they are seized with convulsive
fits and die on the eighth day.
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