Influence of pre-eclampsia on concentrations of haemostatic factors in mothers and infants

It is good to be reminded of drugs that not so long ago passed away in disgrace, for someone may have failed to bury a drug or may have mistakenly resurrected it, having forgotten its dangers. Not so many years ago I missed a diagnosis of Pink disease (but was put right by my friend John Black): a chemist had found a large packet of mercurycontaining teething powders. In the 1940s and 1950s there were many articles about the dangers of boric applications to nappy rashes or burns, or of glycerine and borax for oral thrush, or for use with a pacifier-with consequent diarrhoea and vomiting, a red beefy rash, convulsions, meningism, opisthotonos, haemorrhages, circulatory collapse, and death. All my students were shown an impressive colour photograph of an infant dying with a diffuse red beefy rash due to a 'pacifier' dipped in glycerine of borax. This case report of convulsions arising from the use of glycerine of borax is a timely reminder that when taking a history about a sick child, particularly if the diagnosis is not obvious, one should always ask what medicines or applications, prescribed or not prescribed, have been given.