Domestic medicine; or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines ; With an appendix containing a dispensatory. For the use of private practitioners / by William Buchan.

  • Buchan, William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1794
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine; or, A treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines ; With an appendix containing a dispensatory. For the use of private practitioners / by William Buchan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    66/804 (page 16)
    J6 OF CHILDRkif; vents inflammations of the bread, fevers, and othfcf difeafes incident to mothers. It is drange how people came to think that the* fird thing given to a child dtould be drugs. This is beginning with medicine by times, and no wonder if they generally end with it. It fometimes hap- pens, indeed, that a child does not difcharge the meconium fo foon as could be widied ; this has in- duced phyficians, in fuch cafes, to give fortiething of an opening nature to cleanfe the fird paffages^ Midwifes have improved upon this hint, and never fail to give fyrups, oils, &c. whether they be ne- ceffary or not. Cramming an infant with fuch in- digeftible duff as foon as it is born, can hardly fail to make it Tick, and is more likely to occafion dif- eafes than to prevent them. Children are feldom long after the birth without having paflage both by ftool and urine ,* though thefe evacuations may be wanting for fome time without any danger. But if children mud have fomething before they be al- lowed the bread, let it be a little thin water pap, to which may be added an equal quantity of nev? milk; or rather water alone, with the addition of a little raw fugar. If this be given without any wines or fpiceries, it will neither heat the blood, load the ftomach, nor occafion gripes. Upon the fird fight of an infant, almod every perfon is druck with the idea of its being weak, feeble, and wanting fupport. This naturally fuggeds the need of cordials. Accordingly wines are univer- sally mixed with the fird food of children. Nothing can be more fallacious than this way of reafoning, or more hurtful to infants than the conduct founded upon it. Children require very little food for fome time after the birth; and what they receive fhould be thin, weak, light, and of a cooling qua- lity. A very fmall quantity of wine is diffident to heat afld inflame the blood of an infant^ but every perfon