This is a disease which is supposed to be hereditary and is stated by some to be allied to consumption. A scrofulous child does not, however, often become consumptive. The signs of the disease are well known. The child is thin, pale, and unwholesome-looking, it has not the gaiety of childhood, and the glands, especially those of the neck, become hardened and swollen, and often slowly suppurate and discharge a purulent cheesy substance. The edges of these abscesses are ragged, and, when healing takes place, depressed puckered cicatrices are formed. These are unsightly, and are characteristic of a scrofulous diathesis. Malodorous discharges from the ears or nose are not infrequent in scrofula.

The treatment is simply nourishing food and fresh air, Care should first be taken to ascertain what the child can digest well, and all indigestible food should be avoided. "An abundant supply of good milk should be the basis of its diet; also wholemeal bread and plenty of butter" (Yeo). Fatty foods are what seem to be needed in scrofula; and as puddings are, as a rule, better liked by children than meat, there is little difficulty in getting them to eat food so agreeable to them. A plentiful supply of butter and cream with breakfast and tea, bread and dripping, suet pudding with jam and treacle, apple and suet pudding are all good foods for the scrofulous. Cod-liver oil is the doctor's sheet-anchor; but where this is not well borne, or there is a dislike to it, cream may take its place. To make this digestible it is only necessary to add a teaspoon-tul of cherry brandy to a wineglassful of cream. Cream and soda water will be found an excellent drink for the scrofulous. The clothing should be of wool, and every opportunity taken to give the child a healthy active lite in the sunshine or by the seaside. The dreaded disease may thus be warded off or ameliorated, and the weak and scrofulous child grow into a healthy adult.