Two winters' experience in giving lectures to my fellow townswomen on physiology and hygiene / by Catherine M. Buckton.

  • Buckton, Catherine M.
Date:
1873
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Two winters' experience in giving lectures to my fellow townswomen on physiology and hygiene / by Catherine M. Buckton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    reason for the great quantity of water in the system. This I did by showing, first, how every substance we eat must be completely mixed with water before it can be changed into blood, and, secondly, how all changes are effected by the agency of oxygen of which water is chiefly composed. I had a great deal to say about the wonderful and beneficent properties of water. In contrast with these I traced the evil effect alcohol has on our food, blood, and organs. Were I a teetotal agitator I should treat this subject physiologically, as it seems to me to be the only sure way of deterring young people from acquiring a taste for stimulants. A medical man in Holbeck told me there was an immense amount of secret drinking among working women in his district. The dreadful air of New Wortley where I spent eleven evenings, would, I can well under¬ stand, create a desire for drink. The odours had been so nauseous, as I drove in the dark through this densely populated part, that I deter¬ mined to pay a visit by daylight to discover their causes. I found there were four gasometers very near the lecture room, within a stone’s throw of each other, on either side of the high road, with houses in one case so near them as to form a crescent, with only a, narrow road of separation. Last winter an explosion took place, when a dreadful accident occurred, and the loss of life might have been fearful. Within sight of these dangerous machines, I passed over a canal, and in a few minutes over the river Aire. The piece of land which separates these dark waters, several acres in extent, is being gradually filled up with refuse to the depth of several feet. I saw the night soil which is deposited there lying in a liquid state, only waiting for sun and rain to perfect its horrors and spread them broadcast. Ladies who find it necessary to take several glasses of wine daily to strengthen their nerves, when weakened by too much visiting, or by having too little to do, will sympathise with the craving for stimulants which ill-fed and over¬ worked women experience who are doomed to breathe such an atmos¬ phere as I have described. As I do not believe that stimulants are a cure for any of these evils, I made a strong case against them. The School of Medicine lent me a clot of blood, which had for some time been preserved in alcohol. My object in showing this was to prove that spirits stop the changes which are so essential to persons of all ages, but especially to young children. Gin is administered to them for the slightest ailment. It is said to create a most painful thirst in addition to its many other evil effects. I found that a great deal of prejudice exists against allowing children to drink water as freely as they desire. Mr. G. Manning, of Colchester, hearing of my work, sent me most kindly a collection of books. From some of them I gained valuable information, particularly about children. I devoted one lecture to their digestion, and explained the necessity for giving them milk until the teeth have come and the bones are formed, I related a touching account, given by Dr. JBedner, Physician to the Foundling Hospital at Vienna, of fifteen post mortem examinations which he made on infants under one year, who had been deprived of a mother’s care and of