Every mother's book, or The child's best doctor / by Alfred Fennings.

  • Fennings, Alfred.
Date:
[1859?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Every mother's book, or The child's best doctor / by Alfred Fennings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/24
    PREFACE TO THIS EDITION. Ottb Fate Reader,— This New Edition presents another opportunity for our saying to you a few more words. The theme shall still he the necessity of yourself becoming your Child’s only Doctor—and its object, the safety of the little ecirtli-angel that nestles in your bosom, and the life-preservation of the small loved ones who lisp you Mother. Once more we would earnestly entreat you not to permit the present Medical mania for prescribing Mineral Poisons and Deadly Drugs to find a victim among your little flock, nor allow any Man’s hobby of pet poisons to sacrifice the life of your helpless, confiding child, who, until its own reason can act, looks solely to you to protect it from every harm. Oh ! if we were to tell you some sad tales, culled from a five and twenty years’ Medical experience—of the many sweet cherub Children we have seen, whose bright, laughing eyes ’nave been permanently filmed, and closed in lasting sleep, from the effects of the too-strong doses of ignorance and Professional mistakes—or recount to you a few of the numberless instances we have known of unintentional slow poisonings by White Calomel and White Anti¬ mony Powders, wherein the first dose taken, has perceptibly been the first downward step towards the poor little innocent’s grave; or, could we exhibit to you divers little blanched bodies, mortally drained. (calf-like) of their life’s blood by lancet and leech, we undoubtedly think each anxious mother would immediately make three good resolutions;— First.—To be her Child’s only Doctor; to trust herself, and believe that the same reason which assists her in comprehending difficult croc/iet-patterns, will also enable her to understand a few Medical facts, and to remember them. Secondly.—Never to give her Child White Calomel or Antimony Powders, nor any pre¬ parations of MERCURY—the pernicious mineral which rots the very rats in the mines which yield it, and which quickly paralyses and kills the unfortunate men by whom it is collected. Thirdly.—Only to give her Children, simple, harmless physic, and never, under any pre¬ tence, to let her Child be blood-stained by lancet or leech—those fatal robbers of the red life-stream, of which there is never more than enough, and whose proper quantity alone keeps the heart in motion, and the child in life. And now, our gentle reader, let us again urge you carefully to read through several times the following pages, and you will then know as much, nay more, about Children’s diseases, and how to cure them, than many of the professed Doctors; and being likewise NURSE, will be much better able to save life. We cannot better conclude than by attesting to the great gratification we feel in knowing, by the flattering letters and testimonials we constantly receive, that our humble efforts to pre¬ serve the lives of the “ sweet little pledges of affection,” and to prevent Children being poisoned with the best intentions, have met with high approbation, and been encouragingly successful; and if life be spared, we trust by our continued exertions to prove a yet greater blessing to Mothers and Babes. A. F. *** Dennings’ Children's Powders, mentioned in page 17, were expressly prepared as a convenient, simple Medicine, just suited for Mothers to have always ready at hand; and though they are made from the most harmless materials, they are unsurpassed in always curing the complaints for which they are so highly recommended. They can be obtained or ordered at all respectable Chemists’; or, if required, they can be immediately sent by letter, post free, direct from the Proprietor. See page 17. 22 SCO& 3^e>/ J