Elements of health, and principles of female hygiene / by E.J. Tilt.

  • Tilt, Edward John, 1815-1893.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of health, and principles of female hygiene / by E.J. Tilt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    37/456 (page 25)
    CONSTITUTION AND HEALTH. tlieir parents, a likeness sometimes pleasing, at others ap- proaching towards a caricature. This likeness, generally speaking, becomes greatly diminished when the infant’s skin has been filled out by a few weeks of healthy nursing. III. The complaints to which, in all probability, a new- born babe will hereafter be most liable, can only be learned from a knowledge of his parents’ constitutions, and of the complaints by which they and their ancestors have been afflicted; for as features, tones of voice, mental and moral peculiarities, are transmitted from parent to child, so may certain complaints be likewise transmitted, such as small- pox, &c., &c.; and it more frequently occurs that they may imbibe the aptitude to be afflicted with disorders occcurring at certain periods of life, such as consumption, gout, &c. Every reader will doubtless feel the extreme importance of hereditary tendencies, and must own how intimate is our dependence upon those who gave us life. How much cause, then, have some to bless the memory of their parents, while others cannot without anguish think of the tenure upon which they hold a life they did not covet! If we glance at this bitter theme, it is because the knowledge of medicine convinces us that a more scrupulous attention to the rides of hygiene, as advocated in this volume, must tend to improve the condition of the human race, and diminish the number of hereditary complaints entailed by thoughtless parents on their offspring. But we shall return to this subject when treating of marriage, and the rides which should govern that important step. Threescore years and ten does the Psalmist tell us is the ordinary duration of the life of man; and whatever may be the strength of an infant’s constitution, or the com- plaints which may assail it at certain 'epochs of his life, he may live until that period, or even beyond it; but his existence may be embittered by injudicious management, or