(Cholera infantum).  This disease, which causes the death of so many, is due to the bringing up of infants on artificial food instead of on the mother’s breast.  It is one of the negative diseases caused by diminished vitality.  The disease is similar to Asiatic cholera.  An extensive description of the same is given in Chapter XI A of my book, “Regeneration or Dare To Be Healthy.”  Frequent vomiting and diarrhoea, with rapid collapse of all vitality, and severe brain disturbances manifest themselves, and death frequently occurs after 36 hours.  During hot weather bacterial germs impregnating the air, frequently enter the milk, and many children succumb to the disease at the same time, until wind and rain improve the general conditions.  This is the explanation of the occasional epidemic appearance of Cholera Infantum—­and its established cause.

Therapy.

Diet:  The mother’s breast or the breast of a healthy wet nurse is the very best remedy for this complaint, if applied at an early stage.  If this is impossible, a gruel of barley, oats or mucilaginous rice-water, a decoction of salep (1 teaspoonful to 1 pint of water), or rice water (1 teaspoonful of crushed toasted rice to 1/2 pint water) are recommended.  The missing nutritive substance is best supplied by calcareous earth (calcium carbonate), giving 1/4 teaspoonful in a tablespoonful of sweetened water every 3 to 4 hours, for a day or two.  It is the simplest, yet most wonderful remedy ever discovered.  It is in cases like this that physiological chemistry celebrates its victory.  Try it and you will be convinced.  For more vigorous means the physician must be consulted, as he should be in any case of this kind, and that as quickly as possible.

Physical:  Sponging the entire body of the child with lukewarm vinegar and water, using one-half vinegar and one-half water, may prove very successful.  Warm packs around the abdomen and extending down to the soles of the feet, often prove very effective.  The abdomen must be kept warm.  The employment of coloured light for curative purposes has been already explained in the preceding pages.  The use of blue curtains is, accordingly enjoined here on account of the invigorating influence of the more violent vibrations of blue light upon an organism suffering under the reduced vibration of a “negative disease.”

=The Contagious Character of Children’s Diseases.=

In strict adherence to the biological standpoint, it is recommended that a child be separated from the other children in the house as soon as it becomes ill, and if it is not convenient to send the other children away to be taken care of by friends, they must at least be excluded from the sick-chamber. Each one of these diseases develops some sort of bacillus in its first appearance, and this leaves the body and may fall on receptive soil in the body of another child. Since all the children in one family live