A Book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts

After the lapse of two or three hours, the mother is likely to feel concerned for her child; but, should both incline to be quiet, neither should be awakened for the purpose of nursing. Too early an attempt to put the child to the breast is frequently the cause of much unnecessary pain to the mother. Before a child is put to the breast, all soiled linen must be removed from the mother, the face, neck, breasts, hands, and under the arms 21well wiped with a cloth wrung out of warm water, then covered with a clean flannel chemise open at the nipple. Bay Rum may be added to the water if required. The private parts should be well wiped under cover, greased with lard, and covered with a large, warm napkin, after which a wide bandage should be buttoned on. The babe will not suffer by waiting. The greater number of women afford milk enough in a few hours to supply the needs of their young. The exceptions being either from some malformation or a watery condition of the blood. When the milk pores are free, the child can obtain enough to satisfy it in a short time. If, on the contrary, the glands are hard or unbroken, as they most always are in case of a first child, it becomes the indispensable duty of the nurse to soften the glands, and start the milk running; as it is impossible for the babe to do it by a few draws with its tongue. The glands may be softened by the following means: Besmear the hands with warm goose or olive oil, and anoint the breasts slowly and evenly from under the arms down to the nipple, until the glands soften and the milk begins to flow; after which nipple cups should be kept on in the intervals of nursing. Chapped or bleeding nipples may be cured by frequent sponging off with warm salt water. If through neglect an abscess gets ahead, it should be encouraged to suppurate in one spot, by the application 22of warm poultices of flaxseed meal, salt, hops, or honey and flour, and when ripe opened with the lancet; the babe continuing to suck through the artificial teat.

Those manufactured by Robert R. Kent are invaluable.

If, after the milk has appeared, the glands harden and the milk veins become knotty and painful, I also make use of the following means to relieve quickly: Steep half an ounce of Indian Posy, or Life Everlasting herb, in a pint of water. Oil the hands, and bathe in the same way I have described, with the decoction as hot as can be borne, the patient being in an easy, half sitting posture. In the intervals of rest, she should drink a teacupful quite hot, with or without sugar. When the tumor is considerably advanced, the process of breaking it up is often very painful, and may even cause fainting; but relief is sure if the work is patiently performed and courageously endured. The pain of that is light compared to the torture, for weeks together, of abscesses. The herb has no more specific action than that of relaxing the system through the aid of the absorbents or sweat glands. It relaxes the skin, and is safe to drink as a diet to increase the flow of milk. A child may be born perfectly healthy, yet even for days be slow to take hold of the nipple; whereas many seize hold at once. The friends fret and declare 23the babe is starving, if it does not desire to suck. If they could only read the meaning in those little eyes as they open and shut, they would know the secret—rest, simply rest, preparatory to the task. Many young mothers have no prominence to the nipple, so that neglect on the part of the nurse may cause such to lose the benefits of suckling. A friendly adult or child could soon draw out the nipple by sucking so that the babe can get hold; after which the nipple cups should be kept in constant use, till the babe is strong enough to keep the glands soft, and the nipple pliable. Usually, at this juncture, all sorts of teas are suggested: molasses water, milk and sugar and water; and should the child dare to cry, after the plentiful administration of one or all these teas, up steps an experienced old friend, or grandma, who declares that it must have “catnip tea.” So the world-renowned catnip tea is authoritatively given, while are related the many cases in which the drug was known to have cured wind colic, and how it quiets and fattens generally. Only when the child belches, and refuses to let any more go down its throat, does the pouring in cease. And even this is sometimes taken as an indication that the babe is full, and needs to be trotted to make room for more. Some babes are eager to suck at birth, even seizing hold of the sponge as it passes the mouth in washing the face. If babes are not fed just when they fret and whine, 24some knowing ones say they “suck wind.” Well, is it not natural that they should suck wind, since they are in the world? If they are allowed to lie quietly for a few hours, and are then given a few drops of sweet cream or milk, without sugar, they will give scarcely any trouble, and in due time nature will furnish strength to obtain with ease the amount of nourishment suitable to the delicate organs of digestion. It frequently happens that a babe has a rattling or wheezing noise in its throat, or air-tubes; in such cases, a feather has usually been recommended with which to tickle the back part of the tongue. I always wet the feather, to lay the down. The tickling excites a coughing or gagging, which dislodges the phlegm, so that it can be hooked out with the finger. There are reasons for suspecting that many new-born infants have strangled to death from this cause. I do not mean to cast any reflections when I say that a physician is not likely to be informed of the fact, until it is too late to remove the difficulty. And as the wheezing may assume the same sound as that of catarrh, cold in the air-tubes, bronchitis or croup, the real cause may be lost sight of. Promptness is all that is required when any such trouble presents. The fumes of tobacco, whiskey, smoking lamps or stoves,—also wetting the nipple with spittle when eating snuff, each of these may not only be disagreeable to a young infant, but may 25sicken it and cause instant death. It is true, however, that many children have survived all of these disadvantages, but who can tell how much has been taken from their health, and length of days. Infants should be nursed frequently at first, to give them a good start; they seldom suck more than they need. But from the beginning they should be fed, then laid down. As they grow older they will nurse well, and expect to lie down afterwards. Early and regular habits of nursing prevent the liability to mammary abscesses, ovarian or uterine tumors. Hence, suckling a child as soon as convenient after birth, not only serves to quicken the vitality of the new being by cleansing the bowels and supplying new blood, but it also serves to clear out the system of the mother.

Probably the greatest amount of mischief arising from the administration of “baby teas,” lies in the fact that they are not given with the least certainty as to their effect upon the system of the child, whether to nourish the blood or physic the 26bowels. Let us take catnip: this is a herb described in some books as being a mild laxative, good to work off cold on the chest and bowels of infants; a sweat-promoter. About a dozen years ago a neighbor of one of my patients, thinking it for the best, gave catnip tea to her three-days’-old son. I was hastily summoned, and on arriving in the room where everything a few hours before was so tranquil, I suspected that catnip tea had been around. Of course no one would own up until, after I had staid by the little victim fifteen hours without sleep, finally succeeding in checking the frequent green discharges and thus saving the child’s life,—shame caused the disclosure of the cause of the mischief. The tea had not been given for food, as the mother had a full supply; but as the babe was moving about, it was thought that a little catnip tea would make it sleep. A lady told me with great dignity that her children ate homœopathic pills when they wished. “Why,” said she, “my children fatten on them.”

I saw that she did not know the secret of the “fattening.” Another said, “Why, my James eats castor-oil on bread.” Now we are aware that there are very many articles used as food that can be prepared and combined so as to act in place of medicine in certain cases; but as a general thing medicine will not answer to nourish the body in place of food. According to the mechanism of 27man, there are three stages in his life for which due preparation is made, before he comes into existence, to wit: the breasts’ milk for infancy, the teeth, with which to eat solid food, and medicine, to heal when sick. As to catnip producing sleep, I cannot agree with old ladies in general; but I do know of a truth that if a child is dosed with it in early infancy, the effect is to loosen the bowels; the fatigue from this over-distension of the stomach causes sleep. Babes should move about if they have life enough in them; they should, by no means, be stupefied. The first milk from the breast is the only medicine needed; when other mixtures are poured into the child’s stomach, as teas sweetened with sugar, honey, molasses, either of which is laxative, the danger is greatly augmented, especially if given before the bowels have moved at all. The custom of old-fashioned people, as they style themselves, of giving new-born babes castor-oil and molasses, or soot tea (for that irrepressible belly-ache), and urine and molasses, to clean them out, is, though with reluctance, fast dying out. It would be well to notice that children who are dosed during infancy for every supposed ill are seldom robust. They become physically stunted, and their peevish habits exact for them all sorts of over-indulgence. More food for the blood, and less medicine, should be the motto. Let us follow the tide of progression. 28There are no uniform rules by which infants are to have a discharge at birth, either from the bowels or bladder. Therefore, no efforts to induce such should be used until necessity demands it. It is no uncommon thing for infants to pass large quantities from the bowels, just as they are entering the world; a circumstance not likely to be noticed by those unaccustomed to all the incidents of childbirth. It is always safe to await the action of the first food, whether from the breast or artificial; and if it be but a few drops well digested, there need be no fear but that the napkins will be soiled as fast as desired. If such result does not follow, after waiting two or three days, a flannel cloth folded, and wrung out of hot water, laid first on your cheek, then on the child’s belly, and that covered with dry flannel, will, with perseverance, bring about the desired result. Sometimes an infant passes large quantities of the dark matter immediately after the fatigue of washing and dressing (old style); then it may pass no more for two or three days, or until time has been given for matter to accumulate. If the organs of the child are all right, all will be well. But should doubts arise as to the best course to take, surely medical advice only needs the seeking. It was formerly the custom, and is now to a great extent with old nurses, to give later in the month—certainly before their month was up, as all teas and charms 29had to be given before they left—saffron tea. I have seen them sit by a hot stove and feed infants with saffron tea more patiently than they would like it given to them. I once asked a high-priced nurse why she gave saffron tea. I was kindly, though decidedly, informed that it was to “push the gums.” I was none the wiser by asking. I afterward learned from the child’s older sister that the doctor said the baby had the jaundice. Well it might have the jaundice, kept in a room with a temperature of 80 degrees, with two adult persons night and day, and fed on saffron tea. Now the crocus, or saffron, sometimes grown in our gardens, is described as possessing sweating properties, being good to promote eruptions of the skin in fevers, and good in fits. Yet thousands of infants, no doubt, have been forced to swallow saffron tea, who have not given the slightest evidence of any unnatural complaint. No paregoric, laudanum, or other preparations containing opium, should ever be given to an infant for the purpose of quieting or making it sleep. Sleep-producers serve only to bind the bowels and stupefy the senses. Carminatives—medicines that expel wind—such as caraway, fennel, anise, cardamon, mints and the like, should never be given unless prescribed by those competent to vouch for their effect.

It is becoming a widespread custom to send a 30little girl or boy to a druggist’s to purchase some advertised baby medicine or food. The patent cough syrups, or those kept on hand in shops, I deem unsafe in the hands of the inexperienced. Most, if not all of them, contain some sleep-producing ingredient, whereby they may check a cough by paralyzing, as it were, the little nerves of sensation in the air-tubes; thus giving opportunity for the phlegm to collect in great quantities, with no possible way of escape. Doubtless in this way suffocation is frequently induced, in whooping-cough, bronchitis, or croup.

Several years ago, in the city of Boston, a mother returned from work, and found her baby, which she had left alone, a corpse. Her explanation, as it appeared in the daily papers, was to the effect that she had given the child the rinsings of the vial that contained laudanum, to keep it quiet.

People are getting much wiser nowadays; laudanum and paregoric cannot be easily obtained without a recipe. But they can yet buy and give large doses of “Patent Soothing Syrups.”

In all cases of difficult breathing or signs of croup, with or without hot skin, a soft flannel cloth should be wrung out of hot water, and laid over the entire chest, close up under the chin and ears; and if the bowels are bound, it may extend to the belly, the whole being covered with a dry, warm flannel. By this means the force of a cold can be broken, 31the breathing relieved, and in a majority of cases it is all that is required to be done. Even in severe cases of lung fever, warm water applications are invaluable; acting as an absorbent through the medium of the pores of the skin. If a paste of flaxseed meal is used, it should be applied in the same way. If the applications are to be warm, they should be kept warm, and if they are to be cold, should be kept cold, until relief is obtained.

I may have digressed somewhat, as pneumonia seldom develops in the first month of infancy. At all events, external applications are in place till medical aid is secured. I do not wish to be understood as usurping the power of other physicians; each has his or her own method of procedure.

I merely wish to impress the domestic and common sense means, to be used in cases of emergency.

The old custom of giving infants “a little weak toddy” to “bring up the wind and make them sleep,” should henceforth and forever be removed from the midst of a more enlightened people. If it is given weak the effect is to intoxicate at first, and then produce sleep; which may be followed by a fearful attack of purging. If given strong, it may induce constipation and dry colic, the very thing it is intended to relieve. Such a course may also have inculcated a desire for tippling in many of our weak-minded youth. Castor-oil is a well-known 32sickening purgative, and it does seem to be a wonderful interposition of Providence alone, that so many thousand infants have survived the compulsory dosing with this drug. But a few years ago a lady, aged about sixty-five, came to her end from severe diarrhœa, brought on, as she testified, by taking a “store-bottle of castor-oil at a dose.”

Mothers and nurses should strive to become familiar with all articles of diet; also with the properties and medical uses of all drugs and minerals, and their action upon the animal economy.

It would more than pay me, if in this section I could say aught that would effect the removal of the anxiety generally shown concerning the healing of the navel.

There is a late custom recommended by some physician, that of soaking of the lint, to apply clean each day. This, in my judgment, is risking too much, unless it be with the guidance of an experienced person. I deem it much safer to wipe close around the wound daily; then on the third day slip a clean piece of soft cotton or linen beneath and around the soiled pad; as about this 33time the cord, unless very thick, is dry and will soon drop off, leaving the clean pad as a protecting ring around the navel. The navel should then be looked after each day until healed. But it is an error to suppose that the navel should be healed in any certain number of days. The usual time is from five to seven days; but I have known many to drop on the third day, and more to remain unhealed till after the twelfth or fourteenth day. In the former case the cords were very small; in the latter they were very large and strong.

Many years ago, I learned of an accident that occurred to a midwife of much usefulness: Because the cord remained eight days, she cut what she supposed was a piece of thread; in consequence of which the child bled to death. It would be well to state here that keeping the babe too hot retards the drying of the umbilical vessels. Ordinarily the healing of the navel is simple and natural, and it should never be tampered with. Should unnatural growths appear, any regular physician can detect the cause, and direct the cure at once. Far more accidents occur by the reluctance of friends around to call medical aid in time, than from the cause itself. Selfish prudence is too often allowed to come between duty and human life.

If at any time a white fluid should be discharged 34from the vagina, or private parts, of a girl child, it should be washed away as often as seen, and the parts washed out with a solution of common salt I have seen mothers become greatly frightened at this common occurrence. Cleanliness and perseverance will remove the trouble. If families would make it a rule to have a thermometer in the nursery or the sleeping-room, by which to regulate the temperature of the body, many of these baby-ills would be banished from our midst. The nervous system of babes deserves a large share of our sympathy. But if one were to judge from the treatment they sometimes undergo, it might be inferred that, like dolls, infants have no nerves or rights which men are bound to respect. Children of the same family differ much. One may be sprightly, making frequent music by crying; the other may be comparatively docile. And if a child is quiet and does not cry, or act silly, it is called stupid, and everything is done to arouse its ire.

Children cry for pastime; so they should. It develops the lungs and relieves the air-tubes of any collections of phlegm. Besides, it causes them to be noticed by some one who might forget their existence. There cannot be any comfort in being rocked, tossed, shook and kissed, and that, too, without any regard to the odor of the breath. It is decidedly injurious to wake babes from a quiet 35sleep, or even to excite their attention while lying quiet. Mothers should early learn to listen and become familiar with the different tones produced in the cries even of the same child. Listening should be cultivated more; then the possibility of making a crying baby more noisy, by shocking it with additional noises, will need no more explanation. “Oh,” says one, “they get used to it and look for it.” True,—bred, born, aye and raised in excitement; never can hear or understand anything but noise, noise, noise.

Currents of cold air from a window or door should not be permitted to pass over the exposed body of infants; as, by so doing, the sudden change may, like electricity, direct the irritation to some vital organ. It is considered much safer, when the weather permits, to put on suitable wraps and take them in the open air. The most trouble arises from keeping the infant too warm from birth. Hot-house plants rarely endure the changes of the open air, until it becomes equal to what they have been used to.

Very many women have milk in the breasts before the birth of a child. Others do not have any for some days after confinement, yet may appear comfortable. It is no uncommon thing for them to forget that they have another very important task to perform,—that of preparing healthy meals 41for the offspring. If, at this time, company is allowed, talking and laughing indulged in, the symptoms of the coming milk may be greatly augmented; so that what might have been a slight chill, headaches or fever may become so severe as to require prompt medical aid. Indeed diarrhœa, convulsions, or even insanity may be brought on through the means of any excitement whatever, between the birth of the child and the establishment of the milk.

Giving castor-oil or other nauseous drugs (as has been, and to a great extent is now, the custom) is quite risky, even when prescribed by a physician; as many women are of such a costive habit, that it requires a very large dose to move the bowels. I repeat, it is risking too much, when given in the ordinary ways, for both mother and child. On the part of the mother, an overdose may cause excessive purging and consequent weakness. On the part of the child, should it be nursing while the physicking is going on, the result may be griping and purging, ending its life in a few hours. Every means should be resorted to to move the bowels, where such relief is really needful, before administering physic.

Many women have a large passage during the delivery of the child; and therefore need not be disturbed about that matter for days, or even a week, all other things being favorable. For it 42should be borne in mind that the internal organs are, in a measure, paralyzed by the interruptions of nature during labor, and that time is needed to rest the nerves and bring things in proper order. Headache, so commonly complained of after delivery, is more from exhaustion of the nervous system than from constipation. For this reason should extreme quiet be observed for about nine days. When physic must inevitably be given during the coming of the milk, it is decidedly best to keep the babe from the breast until it is all through with.

But, as a general thing, other means will answer; such as wringing a cloth out of hot water and applying over the abdomen, or belly, rubbing down and across the back and loins, giving large drinks of hot water without sugar, keeping the body warm and moist for a while, but never an injection unless directed by a practitioner.

I would suggest that a few dollars paid to a physician for a half-dozen extra visits during the first weeks of confinement, might prevent months and years of gloom in many families. Again, there are many women that take suddenly ill with vomiting and purging about the time for the milk to appear. The violence with which this trouble progresses, and the depressing consequences by which it is characterized, have indeed caused it to be termed “child-bed cholera”; and 43although it may arise from a previously disordered liver or stomach, it seldom happens unless there has been indulgence in suppressed laughing, inhaling peculiar odors, over-eating or drinking. Although the coming of the milk is most commonly ushered in with some degree of chill or fever, there are as many, no doubt, who experience no change whatever, it being so slight. Hence it probably would be best if the term “milk fever” were never used until really apparent. If, after lactation has become perfect, it should go and come, means should be at once resorted to insure its continuance. Wine, ale or beer are not advisable for this purpose. They may surely lead to the habit of moderate intemperance, while their benefits are only temporary. Pure blood is the basis for pure milk, therefore nutritive articles of diet are of more permanent use.

It is well to bear in mind that a scarcity of milk during the month should never be taken as an excuse for refusing to nurse the child; for if it can get but a spoonful a day, it greatly encourages the chance for increasing it. The mother’s milk is the fountain of life to the babe, and therefore seldom dries up unless there be some unnatural obstruction. It has been said by many close observers, that when the milk goes away without some perceptible cause, the child is not to live.

What will cause the milk to disappear in some 44women, will not in others. Peculiar odors, or pungent, volatile applications will completely and forever drive the milk from the breasts of some women; and a cessation of the milk is frequently a forerunner of consumption of the lungs or tumors about the ovaries. If the nipples crack and bleed, they should be anointed with goose oil, occasionally cold cream, or wet with a solution of sal ammonia, or vinegar and water. This done in the intervals of the babe’s sleep, care should be taken to wipe the nipples before offering them to it. When a mother gives up to the thought that the suckling is the hardest part to bear, and impatiently deprives her infant of the breast, the pleasures of life must be to her of small value. “Try, try again,” is an adage worth heeding.

Should there be humor in the blood, as there ofttimes is, the nipples will not readily heal while the child nurses; in which case it is advisable to feed the child from a bottle and treat the mother. After relief is obtained, the nursing can be resumed. In ordinary cases a poultice made of bruised burdock root and elm flour, together with a tea made by steeping burdock root and drinking a pint a day; keeping the bowels regular, eating rye and Indian bread, and taking about a half teaspoonful of calcined magnesia dissolved in water, once a day, will effect a cure. The poultice 45should be made soft and applied fresh twice a day between two thin cloths.

A lady of wealth may get discouraged and give her babe to the care of another, whose babe may in consequence have lo be put in some charity-house or otherwise to board. Her babe may thrive and live; while that of her wet-nurse may soon pine away and die. No one can avoid distressing others unless he strives, to the best of his ability, to bear his own burdens.

There are many families in moderate circumstances who, no doubt, feel unable to keep more than one fire going during the cold season; yet nevertheless subject themselves and children to frequent and severe colds by the sudden change from a hot room to a cold sleeping-apartment. This might in a great measure be prevented by a little extra care to secure tenements with sufficient rooms on one floor.

An infant should never be allowed to take its regular naps in a hot kitchen, amid steam and 46dust; or in an ironing-room, with all of its day-clothes on, beside extra cover, and then be undressed and put to bed in a room that no heat, not even that of the sun, is allowed to enter. Piling on heavy comforters renders the breathing heavy. No baby’s face should be covered while asleep. It is wonderful to see how hard some of these little victims struggle to breathe while they sleep, if sleep it can be called. Some babes kick off the cover, and after being very warm get very cold; to avoid which, soft flannel night-drawers, made so as to include socks and all, should be used.

Comfortable sleeping apartments without fire are healthy. The lungs of grown persons break down from cause of too much pressure, much more infants; yet from all such exciting causes the air-tubes may escape, and the liver, stomach or bowels receive the whole mischief.

The sleep of children cannot be healthful if their clothes remain pinned down beneath and around them, and, it may be, tight leather shoes on. Besides, it cultivates untidyness to oblige them to submit to such management. On the contrary, every effort, even at the sacrifice of personal pleasure, should be put forth to insure that clean, sweet and undisturbed repose so much required, and without which few, if any, are perfectly developed.

When it is remembered that from the air we inhale 47come the principles of life, and how much it is in our power to avoid the contact with injurious particles or substances therein contained, many disadvantages in the matter of rearing the babe will disappear. The air they breathe should be as much one way as possible; no sudden gusts of wind should be forced upon them by hoisting a window when they are over-warm.

Children, of any age, should not be permitted to sleep in the open air, unless it might be for a few minutes, and where the air is extremely bland; which it seldom is, on our New England parks and gardens. A gradual change in the matter of bathing, dressing, feeding, and putting to sleep should be the rule.

The mother may at any time during lactation communicate cold to a child. My first experience in this matter was about thirty-five years ago, when assisting in the care of a child that was nursing. The mother being very warm one summer day, drank freely of ice-cold water while the babe of about six months was sucking. She had not much more than time to set the glass down when the babe was seized with rigid convulsions, and dropped from the breast. The mother became almost helpless with fright, and as the next farm was some distance off, I had to use my young brain. Therefore, I procured a tub with some warm water and a little mustard; it 48may have been a “fearful lot,” but the infant was all right when I got through with it.

Over-work or great fatigue in any way should be avoided by women that suckle their children. If obliged to work and scrub, at home or elsewhere, they should endeavor to keep a strict watch over the condition of that life fountain, the breast-milk. There is no known law preventing carefulness.

Again, it is a mistake to indulge in drinking beers or other alcoholic slops to prevent the child’s nursing cold. Early subsistence from the strength of whiskey, rum, beers and ales, like tobacco, tends to stunt the intellect and dwarf the stature of the youth of our land. It is much better to eat warm soups, or such solid food as will give permanent warmth to the blood, and insure a clear character to the being. When it is a babe’s meal-time, it should be served with the most exquisite care, as upon that depends its proper growth and length of days. To prove this a fact, take, for instance, an old woman or old man upon whom adversity may have made some telling marks in their younger days, and whose days appear nearly at an end, and let such be well cared for in a neat, quiet, comfortable home; the chances are they will live on in brightness of hope for a number of years.

Contrary to the teachings of some so-called 49missionaries, I believe that neatness in arranging food, dress, or whatever pertains to order and pleasantness, is the most essential part of a Christian duty. For surely if the body is cherished as the image of our Maker, the soul-salvation is a possibility.

I alluded in Chap. II. to putting the new-born in a crib. Not that I oppose their lying alone—on the contrary, I deem it highly conducive both to health and good morals for every one, when at a proper age, to sleep alone.

Now since we have noticed to some extent how sudden emotions, as of grief, anger or fright may shock the child at the breast through the agency of those little organs called nerves,—we will pass on to notice some of the causes of bowel complaints arising from the nature of the food eaten by the nurse. Probably there is no cause more frequently productive of infantile bowel complaints, both during and after the month, than that of the too early indulgence in a mixed diet. It may be well to enumerate some of the more objectionable articles of diet from the first day of confinement to the seventh or ninth month, or time for weaning. Of the vegetables,—beans, dry or green, cabbage, cooked or raw, beets, turnips, cucumbers, green peas, dandelions, spinach and Carolina potatoes. Pickles of all kinds. All of the finny tribe; oysters and lobsters being 50the most dangerous. Of the meats, fresh pork and veal. Of the desserts, egg custards, pastry, cheese and preserved fruits. Of the fluids—coffee—unless ordered for medicinal purposes—raw milk, wines, ales or beers. As a matter of convenience I will introduce what in reason should constitute the proper diet for the same period of time; the modes of preparation being left to those acting as nurses. A large number of women detest gruel, or “baby-food,” as they term it. In this, many, no doubt, are excusable, owing to the condition in which it may previously have been presented to them; you can make a horse leave his oats by sprinkling pepper over them. But to the point: There are about an equal number who enjoy it, and it is always best to try and avoid whims and deny one’s self in every possible manner till after the milk flows freely.

A woman cannot sink on plenty of nice oat, corn-meal, or flour-gruel, minute pudding or toast panada, given often in small quantities. Of course if any article, however well liked, is made by the gallon, so to speak, and warmed over and again, it will become to be loathed; and too great quantities taken may cause much distress in the stomach. Gruels of all kinds should be well mixed with boiling water in a clean, block tin, covered pail; then set in a clean vessel of water to boil, stirring it till well done. Coarse grain 51porridges should always be strained; as also should broths.

For fluids:—Shells, broma, hot milk, pure or watered to suit, are each of themselves nourishing. If the mother’s milk is scant, a tea made of Indian posy or life everlasting, and drunk as table tea, with milk and sugar, if desirable, is good to increase it. The diet should become gradually solid, say in the early part of the day a broiled lamb chop, broiled beef, liver, tripe, sirloin steak, or broths without vegetables. Broiled meats retain the nutritive principles better than when otherwise cooked. If tea or coffee is found to lessen the flow of milk, it may be inferred that if continued, all of the fluids of the body will materially change.

A strict adherence to the aforesaid rules would, in a great measure, be the means of preventing cholera of infants at the breast, particularly in our crowded cities. By all means should child-bearing women eat more freely of Indian or bran bread. Brown bread can be made fresh every day where meals have to be prepared. Bread, cakes, or pastries that are puffed with soda, or whitened, or colored with any chemical substance, is not good for the health. Too much soda thins the blood; also induces baldness. Mothers of former days delighted in preparing good bread, which is the staff of life. Constipation seldom if ever troubles 52those that use coarse bread, and avoid much salt meat. Giving infants just a taste of every suspicious article as a sort of initiation does not always prove a sure preventive against colic. It is an old custom, and was doubtless adapted to its times and places, better knowledge, better acts. Self-denial is required of us in the Holy Writ as the only alternative, if we would be wise.

Children are given to parents only for a lifetime; it may be long, or it may be very short; but to array them in fine linens, with bare neck and arms, as has been and is now to a great extent the custom in many refined communities, for public exhibition, is, it seems to me, a questionable act of parental affection. Yet many do so, and boast, when otherwise advised, of their ability to toughen. Mother, your child may be only one of a hundred to survive such experiments; ninety-nine may have been relieved by an early death.

I have looked upon the lifeless form of babes whose would-be friends had failed to toughen, but had succeeded in contributing a bud to the garden 53of the dead,—yea, shrouded just as they dressed them while living. Thanks to our Heavenly Father, these cruel customs are fast declining; and we may hope the day is not far distant when the feelings of the tender infants will be better protected, and their bodies covered with more comfortable material. We often see, and are expected to admire, pet dogs on the streets, covered well with cloth, though supplied with Nature’s garment. Should pet Carlo die, his loss is mourned as much as that of many infants; in hundreds of cases, being borne to the cemetery followed by a number of carriages and placed in a locality adorned with monument and iron fence.

Too often babies are subjected to a variety of tortures unawares. They are expected to endure, and remain perfectly quiet, with cold food, hot food, cold air, hot air, clean clothes, dirty clothes, wet or dry clothes, thin or thick clothes, wind, dust, light or darkness, noise or quiet, scolding or caressing, squeezing, jolting and beating; finally they endure what no man or woman would, from one week to two years old, or till able to speak for deliverance. Previous to this time they could only squirm and kick and cry, and then, being considered sick, would be forced to take soothing drops or castor-oil. But now they can tell of their little trials by some “sound word” or striking sign.

54One part of the clothing of infants should not press, nor be more thickly folded, than the other. Bands and straps should be made wide and smooth. The belly-band should always be fastened on the side.

While travelling in steam-cars, coaches, etc., infants should lie down as much as possible, as sitting upright and being jostled about is liable to strain or injure for life some part of the unfinished spine; and, too, it may bring on severe vomiting and purging. When a journey is to be taken over a long route and the child is fed from a bottle, some more solid food should be substituted; as the continual re-warming of the milk, combined with the motion, renders it unfit for nourishment. It is more frequently overfeeding and prolonged excitement that causes children to fret so when travelling, than a want of their accustomed food. A little finely-pounded, newly-corned, beef, and the compound Graham cracker, is a convenient lunch to take on a journey, especially in hot weather. This may be considered coarse fare for a babe two or three months old; but properly given, could it be so injurious as keeping them trotting, feeding on sweetened milk and water, alternating with cookies or candies? which, as many can testify, is practised daily on some of our routes of travel.

As a general thing, if babes are well fed and otherwise made comfortable at every convenient 55interval, then allowed to lie quiet or sleep, one will need no better company on a long journey. They soon get used to changes if the change really is for their comfort.

Very young children have no more control over their eyes than they have over their lungs; and by facing an open window, as they are frequently allowed to do, often get some particle of dust in their eyes, causing them to sob and fret for miles. Should they be old enough to rub the eyes, the loving friend or guardian pronounces the cause of the suffering sleepiness, or hunger. Then comes the old bottle; if the babe doesn’t drink from it, the poor little one is rolled and trotted, and sometimes slyly slapped, as a means of subduing the temper of the little ——. It will never do to tell what names such people call their own dear flesh and blood.

Fanning is good pastime for some women, but it is no less injurious to themselves than it is to infants, provided they apply it without regard to the condition of the body. When children are too warm their wraps should be adapted to the temperature; fanning can do more harm in a few moments, than could be repaired in a month.

A lady, going visiting with her first heir, was asked to lay off her babe’s wraps. “Oh,” said she, “there is no use in putting handsome wraps on baby, if I am to take them off while visiting.” I 56may have said quite enough to prove that exposing babes to the sudden changes of temperature and atmosphere may be productive of a variety of stomach and intestinal complaints at each season of the year. Even when precaution is exercised there will be unguarded moments when the germ of disease will enter the system; but those moments should be few. I have tried to prescribe preventives as I go along which I know can be read and put up by almost any housekeeper, whether she has graduated in Chemistry or not.

Extra caution should be exercised with small children in midsummer as school vacations draw near, as then the older children are much depended upon to care for the younger. It frequently happens that a child who has been quite thrifty begins to fall back about vacation time.

“Dog-days,” they say, “give children cholera infantum,” when the truth of the matter is, the accustomed food has been reduced both in quantity and quality, and they are compelled to eat or suck candies, swallow pieces of nuts, fruits, cakes, pickles, or anything the larger children choose to give. “Baby must go to ride in the carriage;” yes, and remain for hours without food, or, what is as bad, given milk to drink from a bottle that has lain beside the warm body for hours. In fact, the child thus treated may continue to pine, and really starve at the very time it should have been 57more lavishly fed. The system of infants has to be guarded at all times and in all places; but more especially in our New England climate, where the atmosphere is so extremely varied. Even if a child does suck the breast, it can be fed through the day, now on oatmeal and milk, and again on plain Indian meal or flour pudding. By these means, warmth is supplied to the blood, and strength to the nerves and muscles.

I hope no one will understand me as advocating heat alone as a life preserver, for I do not. It is heat alone that renders the systems of many children so susceptible to colds. It is uniformity and moderation in their whole management that I am trying to impress upon the minds of all who may desire to profit thereby.

It is claimed, and no doubt rightfully, that it is the children of the poorer classes who suffer most in large cities from bowel complaints. To this too many are ready to say, “Amen.”

But there are duties involving upon each and all, rich or poor, from which none can expect to 58be excused till the last known part has been performed. As the chances now appear, there need be no lack of the common comforts of life in most of our large cities and towns. This is a land of opportunities; in it the laborer gets, or should get, his hire. It therefore becomes his privilege to aid by prudence, industry, and economy, in elevating his family to the discouragement of pauperism and wilful neglect of the laws of health.

It very often happens that those very persons, who claim to be too poor to obtain the necessary comforts of life for their little ones, will not hesitate to purchase some extortionately high-priced article, for which they must enslave themselves to pay by the week or month, and which is of far less value than their own or their children’s health. I would suggest here that an extra ten-cent piece be deposited in safe keeping each day as a surety for a baby’s comforts for the first six months; which should afterward be increased to twenty cents a day, and thus continued during its childhood.

When a child is five or six months old, it is best to begin to feed once or twice a day, so that the weaning may not be too suddenly enforced upon it. Bread, crumbled in a small quantity of milk, corn-meal pudding, mutton or chicken broth, Graham biscuit; very little salt added to the 59porridges is healthy. But no disagreeable substances, such as aloes, pepper or salt, should be applied to the nipples for the purpose of weaning a child; a plaster of wool or fur is more safe for the health of the child.

In this climate (Massachusetts) there are many families who fear to wean their children at any season of the year; many of them migrating from a climate less variable, and in which the customs of feeding infants are altogether different. Such mothers are deserving of no small share of sympathy. I am acquainted with hundreds of them; thank God there are some good mothers, good enough to take the blame upon themselves should their infants sicken and die after being weaned. But for all such there may be found in this little cabinet a consoling word.

Weaning is advisable before June and before December. But if a child does not thrive by reason of some constitutional weakness of the mother, it could probably rally faster by being fed otherwise, at any season of the year.

But whether a child is weakly or not it can gain nothing by continuing to suck after the ninth month; therefore, weaning is recommended about this period. If the mother breeds fast, a prolonged season of nursing but keeps her unprepared, both in strength and household matters, for the next. Then, too, it retards the healthy development 60of the new being, should she become pregnant while nursing. Although the mother’s milk is essential to the proper growth of the child, history records evidences of noble-minded men and women who never nursed the breast, yet lived to a great age.

A great deal depends upon circumstances; for instance, it may be that even with apparently nutritive milk, the bones remain soft, the joints weak, and the flesh wastes away or remains the same. Such cases are not uncommon, especially among the very hard-working people or real indigent. Hence the necessity of seeking medical advice as to the best possible means of supplying the blood with those principles apparently lacking.

From my experience as nurse, I can say that weaning from the breast may be successfully accomplished if begun pleasantly, but decidedly, and continued. The months of May and October in the New England States are the most favorable; April and November in the Middle States, while in almost all of the Southern States weaning is advisable in March and November or December.

Waiting for a child to get all of its teeth is merely a matter of choice. Beside the inconvenience of the differences in the periods of time when the teeth get through, there is an unnecessary drain on the system of the mother, with no benefit whatever to the child.

61The efforts put forth by some women to retard child-bearing is not so good as “Robbing Peter to pay Poll,” because in such cases Peter is robbed, but Polly is never paid. So it seems to me that if these little ones are given in quick succession, it is just as well to have them and get through with it. Many are the women who have borne a dozen or more children into the world, and afterwards filled positions of nobility and trust.

By taking particular notice which course is best to pursue with a child of seven or nine months, I sincerely believe the large number of infantile deaths, under one year, would be much less.

Deferring weaning for the predominance of some certain sign in the heavens, does not accord with our present progress in knowledge.

If cholera of infants can be reckoned as a distinct disease, then can starvation. Whether starvation causes two-thirds of all the infantile mortalities, during the latter part of summer and the first part of autumn, or not, the symptoms indicate 62much the same treatment as in cholera. This statement can only be proved by close unbiased observations; books can never do it.

We will first notice some of the symptoms of starvation which may be present in real consumptive babes, also the signs of starvation that may develop in cholera; after which I shall endeavor to describe the symptoms of cholera as viewed in the light of a disease.

Starvation of a child is seldom detected by friends who may be constantly caring for it, but the eye of a practitioner cannot fail to do so at once, assisted by the required information. Notwithstanding, a physician may permit doubts to enter the mind, or through over cautiousness conceal the real opinion.

A child may be apparently well and hearty at birth, may thrive even at the breast for a few months; then all at once seem to fail. It may be fed on whatever is ordered if not at the breast from the first; yet barely live on for months, whining, drooping, and struggling, as it were, to live. Such patients lay awake, listen, and watch the motion of passing objects; when spoken to, will try to indicate something, look pitiful, act intelligent concerning wearing apparel or toys. In fact such a child is termed cross. It will cry after everything 63it sees, and that it don’t see; will slap things, such as cake or crackers, out of your hand. Nothing offered is welcomed as a relish. The bowels are generally loose, the urine copious; yet in many cases the water is voided in large quantities, while the bowels are dry. The eyes retain their brightness, as if to invite attention to the fact, “I would thrive if I had what I need.” The patient may drink half a gallon a day without the least sign of satisfaction.

Starvation may begin with the fœtal development either from lack of nourishment from the system of the parent, or by reason of repeated attempts at abortion; either of which is sufficient to blunt the vitality of the germ. Such children are likely to “hang on,” perhaps till the period of youth, and with good care may arrive to manhood or womanhood. The most doubtful cases are those that have a dry cough, eat a great deal, yet are never content, bloat at certain times, and grow more stupid; the body becoming a mere skeleton, and with difficulty kept warm. The new being is dependent upon the state of the parent’s blood from the moment of conception till weaned from the breast. If the food upon which a child is fed is the cause of the trouble, it should be changed as soon as possible. If from other causes there are medicines which can in a measure supply the needed basis. But generally the real cause is not 64known or even suspected until too late to repair the injury, and the patient dies after having exhibited all signs of consumption. Children born of consumptive parents may come out quite bright in some branches of thought, yet be quite delicate, seldom passing the flower of youth in life.

I feel incompetent to decide whether a consumptive mother had better nurse her child, and thus fasten the germ of disease upon it, with a view to prolonging her own life; or whether it is best for her to yield to her fate, and substitute some different food for the chance of her child’s life.

If, as heretofore mentioned, the solid or nutritive principle of the milk has been withheld from the babe by adulteration in any way, the blood becomes watery, the fat cells cannot develop, the tissues that hold the fluid with which to moisten the parts dries away, and the flesh becomes soft or skinny. The milk may be nutritive, too, and yet for some reason fail to mix with the juices in the stomach so as to insure healthy blood.

These facts, however, are seldom found out by a casual medical attendant until the powers of digestion are too weak to derive much benefit from another 65kind of diet. Besides, the expense of the articles mostly ordered by physicians renders a trial almost out of the question. There are, however, many articles of nourishment obtainable, which, if perseveringly administered, will do much to assist in building up the little frame.

The most marked of the signs that may end in cholera are vomiting, dulness of the eyes, rolling the head, as if to rock, spitefully crying when taken up to be changed, and begging for everything, as they say; also crying, if old enough, for the very things no one thinks it should have. If a child could have some of what it smells and craves, at such times, no doubt but that recovery would commence. But a general languidness of the whole system, and a loathing of the sight of a bottle or its accustomed food, shows signs of certain destruction. In the last stage the child screams faintly, starts at the sound of almost anything; sometimes the breathing is scarcely perceptible. The discharges from the bowels are seldom white and frothy, as in the last stage of acute cholera; owing, perhaps, to the fact that the diet has been continued in the former, whereas in the latter all food is generally suspended during treatment, except it be fluids of the mildest nature; unlike in the last stage of consumption, when the little sufferer seems to watch every movement of its nearest friend, sometimes rising half way up to 66look about, then falling back exhausted, it now lies quiet.

It may be remarked just here that infants affected with inanition or starvation, consumption and cholera, most invariably retain to the last hour their instinct to suck, whether it be of the bottle or of the breast. It is a well-known fact that infants who were nearly destroyed by starvation from being fed on poor milk by hand, have been successfully raised by being put on breast-milk.

We will now consider that much-dreaded disease termed “cholera infantum.” I have seen babes attacked with it from two weeks old and upwards. A child may be nursing at the breast or feeding from a bottle, when all of a sudden it leaves off, and looks languidly about in a comparatively stupid and pitiful manner; the eyes lose their lustre, are rolled about as if not noticing any particular object. Fluids are thrown up as soon as swallowed; passages from the bowels are frequent, though many times but a speck in the centre of a wet napkin, most of the report being wind. The matter discharged at first is likely to show in some measure the cause of the irritation.

After the acidity has been corrected by medicines, 67unlike a simple looseness, the purging and vomiting of infantile cholera still continue, showing conclusively the inactivity of the internal organs of digestion. In some cases the remedies that are scientifically administered pass out into the napkin unchanged; in others, they seem to lodge somewhere and dry up. The chances are always considered favorable to recovery if the remedies have a desirable action.

A child may drool or throw up its food at any time, yet be quite healthy. If a babe is sucking, and the mother indulges in a mixed or meat and vegetable diet too early, the first passages after it is taken sick will show signs of heat, fermentation and inflammation; they will either be of a deep yellow, or more or less green, and slimy. In such instances it is always advisable to take the infant from the breast for a while and feed it on arrow-root boiled in water, till the acidity is corrected; then in milk, no sugar being added, alternating with gum-arabic water. The mother, or wet-nurse, having been put under strict diet for a week, might with propriety resume nursing. Robust, perfectly developed children are apt to exhibit considerable vitality through the different phases of the disease; but as far as my experience has been, they succumb to the worst more quickly than the more delicate-appearing.

As the disease progresses the little sufferer 68will thrust its fingers in its mouth, as if to intimate hunger or dryness, and gag, as though something was sticking in the throat. The hands and arms are the most active. The lower extremities are seldom moved from one position; and when moved by any one, they are quickly reversed. Every movement of the body, in bathing or changing, is followed by a discharge from the bowels. These discharges vary in consistence even before any medicine has been given. After the bowels have been purged, as is recommended by most physicians to begin with, the discharges from the bowels may run off frequently, and in small quantities, depositing in the napkin a whitish, frothy fluid, which settles down to a chalky substance, giving out the smell of lime. If such emissions continue, they will effect a rapid destruction; or they may have the same appearance from the beginning if the internal organs have been previously rendered weak from starvation, or rather where the food has been but little better than water sweetened; and, too, these frothy emissions greatly chafe the parts if they are allowed to remain soiled.

The tongue is dry and stiff, as a general thing, throughout the disease. The body, with the exception of the belly, is dry and cool. The mouth is apt to be hot from the beginning, a sign remarked by mothers who have suckled babes 69with cholera; in the last stage, the disposition to sleep, but start at the least noise; the mouth lying half open, the intelligent attempts to suck; the decrease of the discharges from the bowels; the cessation of retching; the sinking in of the features; the nervous grasping, as if to catch some passing object; jerking of the body, and moaning, may be looked upon as unfavorable signs.

It is a great mistake to conclude that infants will have cholera if weaned early, or if they are to be artificially nursed. The fear comes from persons having been so educated within the last half century.

All kinds of preparations are advertised and eagerly sought for baby diet; as if the internal organs of babes were entirely different from what they were before, and must needs be supplied with something more supernatural than those of the adult. The symptoms of cholera are by no means uniform. For instance, they may be cut short, or aggravated by overdosing, before the facts in the case are made known. Thus, if paregoric, laudanum, or any alcoholic carminatives are habitually put in the drink, the most marked signs will be the smell of the breath, the presence of constipation, stupor and sinking in of the features more or less, with very little vomiting. Such cases, no doubt, are seldom admitted, the victims being dead, or nearly so, when medical aid is called.

Unfortunately for many children, it is usually in the last stage of the disease that a physician is consulted. Probably any number of palliatives have been given with good intentions and high hopes of success. For one, the old cleaning-out remedy, so much thought of by old ladies, and doctors not a few,—castor-oil. Whatever may be deemed as proper treatment, it should be remembered that nothing short of the most untiring vigilance on the part of the attendant, guided by Divine aid, can bring success in raising a child on whom cholera has fastened its blighting fangs. Yet what encouragement it is to know that by those means it can be saved.

My course for the last fifteen years has been to first ascertain, if possible, the cause of cholera, and have it removed; also particularly to inquire how long it has been since the child has been noticed to fail in the effort to suck; then as to the color and frequency of the discharges. I have never known, through my observations of over twenty-three years, any better corrector of acidity, sourness in the human bowels, than calcined magnesia. 71After giving from two to three grains every hour, or according to the degree of acidity, until it is all apparently changed, then, as cautiously as needful, I proceed to quiet the motion of the bowels, as in case of purging within the month, by the use of mixture No. 1, which if put up by a regular chemist, and given according to directions, can be no more objectionable because inserted in this little book than thousands of other recipes scattered over the community by tons in expensive books.

No. 1, R. Mixtura Creatæ, preperata, zj.—Chalk Mixture, Aquæ Cinnam. zss.—Cinnamon Water. Add Opii Tinct. Gutta vj.—Laudanum.

Shake well before using. Dose—A small teaspoonful after each stool. Increase the dose according to age of patient. Of course it is not expected that the inexperienced would attempt to administer anything other than domestic remedies, unless put up according to the rules of art.

For a decided case of cholera, it is best to begin with half a teaspoonful of the mixture; which, by the by, should be sucked down by the patient very slowly, in order to have it remain on the stomach. No time should be wasted listening to the old story of working off a bowel complaint; few are the adults that ever have survived the experiment, much less the weakly infant. Deaths from cholera cannot possibly be so numerous in consequence of 72the discharges having been checked too soon, for the usual precaution is not to arrest them; so they are let to go on increasing, till all hopes of contracting the vessels are vain. It would be well in all cases before administering Mixture No. 1, to fill a flannel bag with hops, wring it out of warm, salt water and lay it over the chest and belly, re-wetting every two hours; this done will alone sometimes prove successful.

When the mouth remains dry and hot, a little cool water, sucked slowly from a spoon, does seem to revive the little sufferer, and I have no reason to doubt its efficacy in abating the suffering, if not the disease. Stimulant astringents are what is needed after the passages are checked. The least mite of Nature’s stimulant—common salt—laid on the back part of the tongue, will excite a flow of saliva, and greatly assist in removing a sort of hair-worm which has been noticed to infest the throat in some patients. When there is a continuance of vitality, and the passages continue to be green, or tinged with blood, and external cooling applications, as of flaxseed poultices, have been well tried, an effort should be made to stimulate the liver; this is very likely to be the case where the age and constitution of the child is sufficient to permit the disease to run on for quite a while. Hydrargium chloridum-calomel, is sometimes the most reliable drug that can be used to correct 73that. This drug is unsafe in the hands of the inexperienced, but quick and safe when under the guidance of medical skill. The dose for a child six months old should never exceed one-sixteenth of a grain, or one grain in sixteen hours, followed by a sip of warm milk.

The nourishment during this time should consist of the breast-milk, if possible; if not, arrow-root boiled in milk and gum-water, fed from a spoon twice a day, or oftener. But either should always be given about a half hour after any medicine, unless otherwise directed. Cold water should never be allowed to a patient while medicine is being administered, the nature of which is unknown. Light, air, sponging the body with warm salt water, a change of clothing or bedding, each tends to stimulate the pores, quench thirst, and give tone to the whole system. Thin flour-gruel acts as a pasty lining to the entrails. After the irritation has ceased, great care is required to prevent a relapse; therefore in all cases when the breast-milk cannot be obtained, the various vegetable astringents should be relied on to build up the muscles, the different grains, as corn-meal, starch and oatmeal, given often but in small quantities, will build up the fat cells. If, after the liver has been acted upon, the green stools do not cease, and there seem to be a general weakness of the digestive organs, the juice of the 74blackberry, raspberry, or whortleberry, will, in most cases, effect a cure; also, the rinds of ripe peaches boiled in milk till well done, strained, and given when cool—a teaspoonful five or six times during the day, and about as often at night—is excellent. The effect of either of these remedies should be closely watched, as by their astringent nature they might induce constipation.

With a view to the comfort of the sick one, and the convenience of the nurse, it is better to prepare a bed of some light material, on which the patient can lie with its body flexed. Too often the little creature is forced to lie in a narrow place, or more frequently on the lap, in one position, till it would seem as if it would be paralyzed. There should be two sets of bedding in order to expedite recovery. The material should consist of goods that could be easily washed, and kept clean. It is essential, too, that flannel be worn by the sick one; but it is a sad mistake to imagine that flannel clothes do not need changing as often as cotton ones.

When I have suggested a bed for sick infants, some grandmas have thought me cruel. But in such critical cases as the one in question, a few moments’ trotting and rolling on the lap might undo all that it had taken weeks to do. Should the stomach become settled, but the lower bowels remain rather weak and liable to looseness, and 75there is no fever present, I think much of the burnt brandy in small doses. I prepare it in the following manner: Take a wineglassful of the best brandy, one tablespoonful of refined sugar, dissolve it well, then pour it in a shallow dish and set fire to it with a lighted paper, not a match; when the blue flame is off it is fit for use, and should be put in a clean vial and labelled. Of this, I give to a child six weeks old and upward, six drops in a little water, say about three times within twelve hours. To one six months and upward, I give ten to fifteen drops twice a day. This warms up the stomach and stimulates the digestive fluid glands to action. After the brandy has had the desired effect, a speedy recovery may be hoped for. The bathing, nourishing diet, quietness, and, above all, patience, need to be continued with greater zeal when recovery is apparent. The recovery from cholera is probable only when the surroundings are favorable; it is doubtful where the locality is densely inhabited, the disease prevalent, and where there is a lack of means to provide ample care and nourishment. Patients recovering from a disease like cholera, which so undermines the nervous system, require a deal of determination to prevent the undoing of what has been done by catering to their whims.

As a general thing, children begin to get teeth from the ages of five to seven months. The middle, or incisors, in the lower jaw, are the first to appear, one in advance of the other; and, too, these may get through almost unnoticed. It is a custom with many persons to begin poking into a babe’s mouth just as soon as it shows restlessness, or signs of getting teeth; and, perceiving that it bites, as naturally it should, they at once introduce a rubber, or some kind of hard substance, for it to bite upon, to assist the teeth through. This is unnatural, and liable to increase the already feverish and fretful condition of the child. The more artificial friction is applied, the more inflamed will the gums become. Teaching babes to bite on the fingers, rings, dolls, and the like, is but subjecting 91them to torture which they would gladly repel could they speak.

There is really no set time at which babes should get teeth; some begin much younger than others. There are instances recorded of children being born with teeth; this, however, is of rare occurrence; but it is a common thing to see the forms of well-developed teeth through the delicate, transparent cover of the gums at birth. The development of these little bones is really peculiar, and worthy of the most profound study; but I shall only attempt to speak here in reference to the maturing process, or their making ready to come through the gums, hoping, by so doing, much of the seeming anxiety of young mothers and nurses from this cause may be removed.

The term “critical period” is applied so much to the process of getting teeth that it becomes fixed upon the heart of many mothers long before its time of beginning. The most that must be guarded against is fatigue, either from lying or sitting too long in one position, irregular habits of feeding, and untidyness. The more a child slavers when getting teeth, the better; yet this is not always a sign of coming teeth. The slaver, nevertheless, keeps the mouth cool and moist, preventing dry or papular eruptions. Cold water is advisable, given frequently from a spoon, while the teeth are breaking through. If the child is at 92the breast, well; if not, its food should consist of scalded milk; as it grows in strength, oatmeal is a good addition. If hearty and craving in disposition, Graham crackers crumbled in and fed to it with a spoon, about twice a day, generally gives due satisfaction. If the passes from the bowels are numerous, yet healthy, a drink of gum-arabic water two or three times a day, together with flour added to the milk in place of oatmeal, will generally regulate them. Over distention of the stomach by sweetened drinks should be strictly avoided. The extreme fretfulness of the babe at this time is caused by the pressure of the crown of the tooth against the sore or swollen gum. When the teeth get through, the cause of the distress will be removed. Should the gums continue painful, as is often the case with the double teeth, a dentist or the family physician should be consulted at once; and, if Nature has made ready the bony structure to be bared, the least touch with the lancet will part the skin and assist it through. I repeat that the gums in a healthy condition seldom need lancing; they may be left to Nature. Admitting, however, that there are numerous cases of daily occurrence where the lancet ought to be applied, it is positively forbidden by some would-be friend. The surest way to stop toothache in the adult is to extract the decayed member, and so the surest way to cut short the sufferings of an innocent babe, 93whose gums are swollen and painful, is to lance the gum, and let the tooth come through. Children whose mouths are dry from being kept too hot, eating highly-seasoned or salt food, or from some hereditary disposition, are especially liable to be late getting teeth, and there are many living evidences where none ever appeared.

The greater mischief is done to the whole nervous system by the unnatural but ancient custom of pressing and rubbing the gum long before, or at the time the teeth are making ready to come through. I believe it possible to trace the cause of insanity to the pernicious custom of rubbing the gums of infants. Once commenced, it, like all applications that arouse the feelings, is looked for at a certain time, rendering the child a burden rather than a pleasure to the family circle. It is strange, but true, that the anxiety of some mothers to see the much-mooted “critical period” culminates in a desire to bring it about.

The four cutters may appear in the upper jaw before the lower ones; two may come close together, then the two lower ones. After a while, the other cutters get through, making eight in all,—four up and four down. Then comes the canine 94or dog teeth, of which there are four,—two upper and two lower. About this time the stomach begins to be more or less affected, according to the surroundings; the child is said to be “cutting its eyeteeth.” Lastly come the grinders, of which there are eight,—four upper and four lower,—twenty in all,—and are denominated milk teeth. The following is the order in which they appear: Eight incisors or cutting teeth; four canine or dog teeth; eight molars or grinders.

Many babes keep their mouths firmly shut against rubbing intruders, and, as if to surprise one, open the mouth to cry, and display quite a row of pearly teeth. Healthy, well-developed children generally have all their first teeth by the third year. Backward or rachitic children often have none at that age. I am acquainted with several apparently robust persons who never had all of their first teeth, and who are now probably past the age to get them.

After the first teeth are through, precaution is necessary to preserve them. They should be kindly looked after each day, any foreign particles removed, and the teeth wiped with a wet cloth. No hot or exceedingly cold, sour, hard, or brittle substances should be allowed to be bitten on, as they are easily broken. A snagged-tooth child looks almost as repulsive as a snagged-tooth man or woman. If people will let their children go 95around, as in midsummer they frequently do, with bare feet on the cold sidewalk, or with wet feet from having waded in every accessible puddle of water, while getting their grinders, they should not wonder at the great number of deaths under four years old. For thus, many, besides suffering greatly with pain from teething, take cold, which may develop in lung fever. Hardly any one says, “My child died from exposure while teething.” Nay, but pneumonia sets in, and the teething has to bear the blame. The primary cause is overshadowed by the probable secondary cause of death. If the first teeth are well cared for, all decaying ones removed in good season, the foundation of a handsome, permanent set will be sure, there being no constitutional diseases of the teeth themselves.

Loose, aching teeth are no less annoying to children than to adults, and it is cruel to force them to endure the pain when a few cents paid out to a dentist would remove it at once. Uneven, overlapped, inverted, projecting, and anomalous teeth are nearly all occasioned by neglecting to remove the milk teeth in proper time. Usually the application of the dental forceps is no more dreaded than the linen thread.

It is a mistake to suppose that children must have sore ears, eyes, mouth, nose, head, or some sickening eruption of the skin while teething. On 96the contrary, it has been clearly proved that too much heat and uncleanliness are the chief causes of these repulsive troubles. If sores or pimples do appear at times, they can with propriety be washed often with warm water, anointed with cold cream, till well; or, if there are bleeding pimples, sprinkling the parts, after washing each day, with calcined magnesia and elm flour, in equal quantities, will soon effect a cure. Babes whose scalps are well cleaned at birth seldom, if ever, have sore head. There is not the slightest danger of giving the child cold by cleaning it off as fast as possible, when discovered. I have frequently seen little three-year-old ones playing about with not only a sore patch full of greasy dirt on their scalp, but a filthy-looking cap, called a tar cap; in this way they have been kept till the hair-tubes were as completely destroyed as if the head had been scalded. It is not very encouraging to know that the great wisdom which prompts people to do, or persist in having done, these mischievous things, is never sufficient to find the remedy for the injury done. Whenever scurf does form on the head, it may be removed by applying sweet oil; should there be disposition to matter, a wash, made by boiling burdock root in water,—say half an ounce to a pint,—applied once or twice a day, is cleansing. To heal a healthy scalp sore, red oak bark, steeped in water,—say half an ounce to a quart,—makes 97a good wash. Sometimes the cure is very tedious; but, with due patience, all will be well.

When children get so that they can nibble, it is not a good plan to begin putting candies and knick-knacks in their hands as a play-rule; for this habit induces, to a certainty, all the unpleasant symptoms attendant upon indigestion; the most marked of which, in children, is unrest, fretfulness, loss of eye-sight, loss of teeth, and dwarfed statures. I take pleasure in recommending the following as a healthy, desirable kind of biscuit for children: Take one teacupful each of wheat and Graham or Indian corn-meal; one half cup of brown sugar or molasses; half teaspoonful of salt; mix with warm milk, knead well, cut into medium size cracker form, and bake quickly. They are nice, and should be eaten at regular meal times, dry, or crumbed in milk-and-water tea. Milk should never be withheld from children on a pretext of being feverish.

We have, no doubt, learned, through the histories of the past, that war, or any civil commotion, naturally interrupts the moral and physical condition of the people in whose midst it is carried on. Not far from a quarter of a century has elapsed since the close of our civil war, and really the moral and physical condition of some of the people, the more remote from the scenes of those terrible deprivations and conflicts, are just beginning to develop the worst consequences.

106It is my serious opinion that thousands of children die annually in the city of Boston, under five years of age, from diseases brought on through the excitement of expecting to go to school, the early change, the exposures from actual compulsory attendance, while the system has barely recovered from a lengthy prostration, and now needing fostering at home with regular meals and plenty of toys for amusement.

Many are the little children of three and a half, four and a half, and five years, that are still getting teeth, sent out in the streets to saunter along in the chill air of our hill-streets to some school-house. Heaven bless our schools, for they are invaluable; but may God change the minds of the people as to such early exposures, being best for the credit of our Commonwealth. In school at four and a half, and in the grave at five; or in school at five, and in some State Reform School at seven or eight! just when the mind is beginning to be formed. It is well known that diphtheria, pneumonia, and various contagious diseases are more prevalent where there has been some exciting cause. For instance, during the warm days at the breaking up of winter, when the snow is melting and the atmosphere is filled with vapors, one can see children of all ages wading about in running water, dragging sleds, moving snow; some heavily-clad feet well protected, while others are not supplied even 107with wraps, but with rubber boots, it may be, minus the toes. In a few days many deaths of this very class of children are reported in some locality or other. Children will sit or stand around in places injurious to the health, and will go into dangers where they seem really to be admired by some adults. In the hurry and excitement to go in the street, so much is lost of a chance to build a solid foundation either of health or character. I know it is hard to restrain little ones after they have tasted of so much freedom as is given them during the weakest period of childhood, the teething period. This is why I feel so anxious to do or say something that will assist parents to lighten their burdens in this matter. In the first place, let me advise, with all due feelings of respect, the entire abandonment of low, dark, bad-smelling, water-soaked basement kitchens to work in, and the adoption of a rule to live more on top of the ground, and less under the ground. The depression upon the system of any one who has been permitted to exercise in open daylight, is equal to that of being incarcerated. Some persons say they send children to school to get them out of the way; a child soon begins to know this, and gradually goes out of the way, until some aching tooth or biting pain sends him crying to his friend.

If rooms are occupied all on the same floor, it is much better for the health and comfort of all. 108Windows can be dropped from the top; or a swinging pane, set in the top of a sash, is a very good way to ventilate or let in fresh air. So few people that depend on their bodily strength from day to day, stop to think that pure air is the all-essential element, and that without light, air, and sun in their dwellings, the poisonous gases cannot leave them, but they must sooner or later succumb to them. Children need a great amount of rest while growing. Yet few children are ever permitted to lay down during the day after entering the primary school. “Oh,” said a mother, “children rest sitting in school.” The probabilities are, that those little nerves are all on a stretch for the first six months (if they last that long). And they never rest except the meals are regular, the mind made happy, and the sleep quiet and sweet. Not only so; the nervous system of children is, in many instances, run down before entering school at all. Thus, through a desire to humor or cater to its seeming wants, a child is permitted to toddle about on foot, aided by some excitement, all day long, eat whatever it should not, fret and fume till it is literally outdone. This might be avoided by the exercise of a little early home rule, which could be the better understood by the time the child is old enough to enter a public school. If there are a dozen children in one family, each one should be supplied with a chair, according to its age; so that 109when the word is given to sit down, it may be understood and obeyed. If children can conform to rules of order for strangers, they certainly will for their dear parents and guardians. Would it not be well for mothers and friends to withhold some of their indulgences from children who are entirely too young to appreciate their endearing acts, and bestow them more lavishly when the possibilities of experience will insure a reward? Would not a little more kind persuasion bring sunshine into the family circle? Would it not pay for every laboring man of a family to reserve an empty room at the top of the house for a play-room for his children? There is not the least doubt but that every mother would be made to rejoice from the advantage; if not at the top of the house, on the same floor with the sitting-room.

There is nothing particularly commendable in the habit of permitting cats and dogs to be closely imprisoned with children, as little ones are prone to put their mouths to everything; thus, there is a probability of worms making from the hair of such animals when swallowed. By the close observance of the different traits of mankind, I have been led to believe that true philanthropy is ingrafted into the human heart only through Divine agency. So that if belief in God and His attributes is entertained by each, no sacrifice will be considered too great for the sake of relieving the helpless ones within 110the family circle. Philanthropy cannot dwell in the heart of an eye servant, it must be inborn and unbiased in applications relative to human happiness. Too often, it happens that mothers give up all hope just at the weakest period in a child’s life, willing, on the slightest pretext, to abandon the offspring of their body. Words are not adequate to portray the lasting miseries that, in consequence, daily encircle the minds and bodies of the youth of our land. With many parents, the beginning to raise a family is novel and pleasing, but at the very time the most particular care is required, patience and watchfulness flag, so that it is no uncommon thing to hear mothers, in particular, declare their inability to rule and rear their own children. Would it not be well for mothers to make a little sacrifice for the sake of equipping the mind, that they may be able to dispense the required rudiments of moral and intellectual education at home, till a child is at least seven years old? Let mothers awake to duty; let them seek to know the causes of so many bleeding hearts and weeping eyes, and learn to compare effect with means, and means with ends; then the pall that is ever ready to obscure their sky of cheer, will rapidly disappear. We find, when comparing the statistical reports of the death-rates of children under one year old, that they are largest in those cities where the influx of immigration is constant, 111and the women, either from choice or necessity, are so engaged in other pursuits, that they do not take care of their young. Also that the death-rate of children under six years old, is greater in those cities where early home discipline is thwarted and early school privileges are the rule. But a few months ago, a gentleman informed me that he had lost his only daughter. “What caused her death?” I inquired. “The doctor said she studied too hard; she was taken with a hemorrhage, and died in a short time.” “Was she old enough to go to school?” I asked. “Oh, yes,” was the answer. “She was five years and a half.” I knew the child was delicate from birth, but, notwithstanding, her mother had taught her the alphabet at home. No wonder, the doctor said she “studied too hard.”

The “mind your own business” policy goes down too well with some women, for when the doctor pronounces the sickness of their babe a hopeless case, they seem at once to give up all hope, they have no alternative, they are mute, and will not so much as direct a petition to Almighty God, the great Physician for relief. Would it not strengthen the advocacy of equal suffrage in a population of over three hundred and sixty thousand, if every woman would cultivate a desire to know more about the prevention of disease and the preservation of health?

Diminutive, sickly, half-dependent people, care 112little what party governs, so long as they, themselves, barely exist. By real, earnest, devoted measures, women may be enabled, within the next decade, to exercise the right of franchise, and fill positions of honor outside of the domestic circle. But the women that compose the domestic circle have been, are, and ever will be in the majority; these are the women that have the greatest work of reform before them, namely, that of nourishing in infancy, ruling in childhood, and persuading in youth, the children of their fireside, that their sons may not graduate from the highest school of State penitentiaries, nor the bright future of their daughters be blasted by reason of early abandonment to the mercy of State charities. Parents should hold on to their children, and children should stand by their parents until the last strand of the silken cord is broken. It is natural to the childhood days to sport and play. All cannot bear the early and long-continued expectations through adverse circumstances and frequent unpleasantness of a finale. The vexations of youth from these causes, often serve, no doubt, to embitter the mind against further progress. We need in every community educated men, it is true, but the foundation dependence is in healthy, moral men and women.

Children should not be asked if they like such and such things to eat, with the privilege of choosing 113that which will give no nourishment to the blood. You may as well ask a child if the new shoes hurt the feet, if it is advanced enough to know that the old ones must be continued till the new ones are changed. Too much is expected of little children for their own good. All of the bones of our bodies, when broken, will unite again; but if the enamel of the teeth gets cracked or broken off, they soon decay, and will be destroyed if not cared for by the means of art. From the age of seven months to twenty years, man is being supplied with those thirty-two pearly bones with which to prepare the food for entrance into the stomach, that it may be converted into milk, from which blood, the life principle, is derived each day.

Headache and toothache, one or both, render the school days of many a youth burdensome. This, too, may be caused as much from cold feet, indigestion, and constipation, as from either arduous studies or decaying teeth. Some parents would stand in amaze if their sons or daughters were discovered perusing some work upon the anatomy and the preservation of the human teeth in youth; while the same parents would boast of the almost frenzied determination of their children to read every available love-novel; that, too, while the new teeth are daily pushing against decaying ones. The study of the science of Dentistry is wise and commendable to all.

114Pauperism, like familiarity, “breeds contempt”; therefore persons should try with all their mind and might to avoid its conditions. Is it too much for me to say that the excuse for a mother’s consigning her child to some almshouse, while she goes free, can be but shallow? Unfortunately, the “I can’t” finds many prompters, and gains the precedence in many instances, where renewed and determined resolution only is required to succeed in caring for the helpless, and governing the passions of the youth, until they are old enough to hire out, or be put to some trade. To labor is honorable. Mothers, before you forget the tie which binds you to your child, and deliberately consign it to the care of strangers, look into those dear little eyes. Remember, few ever return, or are restored, as was Joseph of old.

In the bleak and changeable climate of Massachusetts, 115in the city and vicinity of Boston, for instance, there reside many families whose ancestors were born in a more genial clime. Therefore, it is not natural that they, themselves, should be able to endure exposures to hard fare, even had they been early accustomed to it in a warm, native clime.

Our women work hard, seemingly, and many of them against a heavy tide; nor does there ever seem to be an end to their toils. Especially do some of the laboring women of my race appear to work under heavy disadvantages; if the family is small, they are never through with their work; if it is large, there is a double excuse for having no time to rest; yet many real needful things are left undone. I have often wondered if such housekeepers, whose own affairs are neglected, and in whose homes things go to waste, while they take so much upon them of other people’s work, never thought of the story of “filling a hogshead at the spigot that had no stopper at the bung.”

So with our men who labor hard; they are anxious to keep the wolf from the door, and they thoughtlessly rise in the morning, go to work, perhaps, without breakfast, working for hours in a condition for odors, contagious or otherwise, to affect the system. Thus the liabilities to colds in the vital organs, which may go on for years, gradually undermining the general health, or may, as 116frequently happens, develop in lung fever, and consequent shattered constitution. The laboring men of my race, generally speaking, take much better care of the horses intrusted to their care than they do of their own health. Were men just as particular about what they themselves eat and drink, and how they dress and sleep, the deaths of young men of thirty and forty years would not be so common. Those who are not careful of their health die early in this climate, and their offspring die earlier.

It is not the blood we wish to keep hot, as some desire to do; this induces disease and premature decay. It is the body that needs to be kept warm while the blood is normal, or rather cool. This is just as easily done with man as with the horse.

Frequent baths, wearing all-wool flannels next the skin in winter, changing for thinner ones in hot weather, eating coarse dry food, taking less medicine, desisting from the use of tobacco and “firewater,”—all tend to lengthen the days of mankind on this beautiful earth. It is authoritatively stated that the colored population decreases in Boston, but it is not all the fault of the climate; for there have been native Africans who lived to a great age here. It is the neglect, in a great measure, to guard against the changes of the weather.

By seeking to get in possession of the comforts 117of life, and buying a little home, our men can yet be enabled to live, and raise up children who shall be an honor to that noble race with which we are identified, in point of strength and longevity. The Lord gave the qualities, it is for us to preserve and improve them for His final acceptance. Our Heavenly Father has provided a healing balm for every disease that man is liable to, and I am prepared to say that all diseases can be cured without the use of alcoholic stimulants. We have access to a large and varied field of remedies, both in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, the virtues of which unfold to man in proportion to his possession of heavenly virtues.

Let me, in conclusion, appeal once more to the united efforts of mothers and fathers. Do not try to be blind when you are not. Can you not cut short the certain destruction that awaits your sons and daughters, through the influence of impressions gained by the constant perusal of fictitious, and, in many cases, corrupt library books? Will it not pay to prohibit those under age, or at least under fourteen, from reading even Sunday-School story-papers? We are aware many of them are given for the moral to be derived, but not more than one boy or girl in a hundred ever cares a fig for the moral.

Does any one believe that the majority of the little children who witness the farce of “Punch and 118Judy” on Boston Common every summer, gain a moral, or feel that it is wrong to imitate beating a wife, killing a baby, or hanging a black man? The popular adage, “No nigger, no fun,” is why such schools are tolerated on our Public Parks. Are they not a curse to our land? May not such shameful scenes prove to be the primary lessons in pugilism, murder, and suicide? Possibly they best serve to prolong the barbarous system of flogging, whether it be by lashing to a post and applying the cat-o’-nine-tails, or otherwise. Then will it not pay to endeavor to cultivate inborn morals early in life, thereby shutting out a desire for vulgar and debasing sports?

Volumes might be written in which could be inserted plans, which, if enforced, could not fail to prevent the adversities of life, the gloomy foreshadowings and prolonged deficiencies in health. Some do not wish to know about the human system, others cannot read, and more have no time to read, or think how to live and be happy; seeming to forget that our Heavenly Parent gave the earth, with all it contains, for man’s inheritance. Many such are laboring day and night, and trying to educate their children, yet do not always turn the abilities of their children to good account. Books on the laws of health from the proper source could never injure the mind and morals; but would, if read aloud in the family circle half as often as 119trashy novels are thumbed over, prove a blessing more lasting than gold. Let us strive to know more about ourselves,—it is human, it is Christianlike to do so. Then will there be minds from which to select students for the college, that may come forth to the community graduates in Pharmacy, Surgery, Dentistry and Medicine. It is well known that many noble-minded women have graced the chambers of the sick with good service, in different conditions of need, too; but at the present, women appear to shrink from any responsibilities demanding patience and sacrifice, or rather seem not to rely on the union of their strength with that of our great Creator, in time of need.

What we need to-day in every community, is, not a shrinking or flagging of womanly usefulness in this field of labor, but renewed and courageous readiness to do when and wherever duty calls.