"Some acute digestive trouble here apparently," he said, and then
something about finding out the cause of it.
But hardly had he put his hands on my child as she lay in my lap than
there came a faintly discoloured vomit.
"What have you been giving her?" he said, looking round at Mrs. Oliver.
Mrs. Oliver protested that she had given baby nothing except her milk,
but the doctor said sharply:
"Don't talk nonsense, woman. Show me what you've given her."
Then Mrs. Oliver, looking frightened, went upstairs and brought down a
bottle of medicine, saying it was a soothing syrup which I had myself
bought for baby's cough.
"As I thought!" said the doctor, and going to the door and opening it,
he flung the bottle on to the waste ground opposite, saying as he did
so:
"If I hear of you giving your babies any more of your soothing syrup
I'll see what the Inspector has to say."
After that, ignoring nurse, he asked me some searching and intimate
questions--if I had had a great grief or shock or worry while baby was
coming, and whether and how long I had nursed her.
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