THE DANGER OF SOOTHING POWDERS.

Evening Star, Issue 3129, 28 February 1873, Page 2

THE DANGER OF SOOTHING POWDERS.

{From the Melbourne Argus, January 3.)

A jury at Sandhurst the other day returned a verdict that the death of a child had been accelerated by the use of Steadman's powders, and that no blame was chargeable upon the parents. The medical evidence showed that the Steadman s powders contain opium, or one of its preparations, and the post mortem signs agreed with poisoning by a narcotic. The mother of the child admitted that she had often given these powders to her own children, and no doubt she had done so with the best intention. There is no doubt, however, that poisoning by opium in some form or other is among the many modes by which young children are continually sent out of existence in this Colony. This is by no means the first tune that these particular powders have been concerned in infanticide, and if they were the only preparation possessing properties dangerous to infant life, it would perhaps be easy to save a good deal of the child-killing by denouncing them in particular. But they represent only one of the many dangerous preparations that have been devised to mask the symptoms from which children cutting their teeth arc apt to suffer. Indeed, there are persons who make no disguise of the practice at all, but give infants laudanum directly, without troubling themselves to throw upon others the responsibility of the poisoning. Others there arc, however, who, without inquiring what is precisely understood by the term “ soothing,” but knowing the administration of some of these quack nostrums lessens the frequency with which children cry, give them in the belief that if a child ceases to cry it ceases to suffer. No doubt it ceases to be conscious of suffering, and so il does when it dies. It is true that all children to whom narcotic soothing medicines are given do not die; but it is open to something more than conjecture whether the foundations of many brain disorders are not thus laid in early life; and whether years of subsequent suffering are not caused by the igaojwjoe or wilfite* of mottar* and

nurses, who will not take the trouble to ascertain exactly the cause of an infant s inarticulate complainings. . It cannot be too widely known that infante are remarkably susceptible to the influence of opium in any form. The twelfth of a grain has been, many tunes known to kill a baby, and one case is stated in which an infant four weeks old died witli the symptoms of narcotic poisoning, after having given to it a dose of paregoric equal to one-nineteenth of a grain. Many preparations containing opium are frequently given in ignorance of their narcotic qualities. Thus, Dover’s powder, which is often used as a simple diaphoretic, contains ten per cent, of opium; paregoric contains a grain in half an ounce, and chlorodyne, which is nowadays so extensively used in the household, contains a varying proportion, according to the preparations used, of morphia (the alkaloid of opium), chloroform, and prussic acid. Medical men have continued to caution their patients against the indiscriminate use ot these remedies, which are reerp:nised officinal preparations; but as th#T are found eminently convenient for tke quieting of children, they are used in the face of protest. But of the non-officinal preparations there is a host, and though it is known they all include opium among the ingredients, being patent medicines, the exact quantity they contain is uncertain. But tliere is no doubt many children are killed by them, and yet the cause of death can only be surmised, A medical man finds a child suffering from symptoms of congestion of the brain, but as many other causes besides narcotic medicines may occasion this condition, it is impossible to do more than to treat a child so suffering on general principles. Syrup of poppies, Godfrey’s cordial, Dalby’s carminative, black drop, sedative solution, nepenthe, or one or other of the rest of these deathdealing agents may have been given for some time prior to medical aid being suiumoued. Congestion of the brain is a good general cause of death, and so the parents are satisfied, the undertaker is satisfied, the registrar is satisfied, and if the medical man is not satisfied, he keeps his dissatisfaction to himself; for he is generally reluctant to refuse a certificate, knowing that at that stage no analysis would be of the slightest use, as all organic poisons pass readily out of the system. It is only when a medical man has not been called in at all that an inquiry takes place, and then, judging by the verdict of the Sandhurst jury, it is nobody’s fault, the child