THE DANGER OF SOOTHING POWDERS.

Colonist, Volume XVI, Issue 1604, 4 February 1873, Page 4

THE DANGER OF SOOTHING POWDERS.

(From tlie 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 consisted with poisoning by a narcotic. The mother of the child admitted that she had often given these powders to her other children, and no doubt she had done bo with the best intention. Ignorant people frequently do the most terrible mischief 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 time 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 stay 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 are apt to suffer. Indeed, there are persons who make no disguise of the practice at all, but give infants laudanum direotly, ■without troubling themselves to throw upon others the responsibility of the poisoning. Others there are, however, who, without inquiring what is preciaely understood by the term " soothing," but knowing that at any rate the administration of some of the»« 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 il ceasea to be conscious of suffering, and so it 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 r.ot thus laid in early life, and whether years of subsequent suffering are not caused by the igno, ance or wilfulness of mothers 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 infants are remarkably susceptible to the influHnee of opium in any form. The twelfth of a grain has been several times known to kill a baby, and one case ia on record in which an infant four weeks old died with all the symptoms of narcotic poisoning after having had given to it a dose of paregoric equal to one-ninetiel.h of a grain. Many preparations containing opium are frequently given in ignorance of their narcotic qualities. Thus, Dover's powder, which is olten 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 preparation used of morphia (the alkaloid of opium), chloroform, and prussicaoid. Medical men have continually to caution their patients against the indiscriminate use of these remedies, which are recognised officinal preparations, but as they are found eminently convenient for the 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 there 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 eh Id 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 death-dealing agents may have been given for some time prior to medical aid being summoned. 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 genei'ally reluctant to rafuße a certificate, knowing that at that stage no analysis would be of the slightest use, as all organic poisons pass rapidly 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 verdiot of the Sandhurst jury, it is nobodj-'s fault, the child died. The Pharmacy Act, which has now been drafted and in the hands of one Government or other these two years, contains a provision which would check a good deal the sale of these dangerous '• soothing" medicines; but »s this measure, like tho Amended Medical Act, has an eminently useful character, it has been continually put on one side, to be " considered in the recess." It may be worth while considering, however, whether the saving of some children's lives is not deserving of the attention of the Legislature, even though it should be by the relinquislitneut of more showy but less practioal measures.