A treatise on the physical and medical treatment of children / by William P. Dewees.

  • Dewees, William P. (William Potts), 1768-1841.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the physical and medical treatment of children / by William P. Dewees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    19/556
    bodies of both males; and females, may be precociously expand- ed, or may H9e unusually retarded. In the first instance, the period we have assigned may be anticipated with safety; but in th'e second, it would be wise to extend it. Thus, oftentimes in India females become mothers at ten; while in Lapland they rarely give evidence of womanhood until eighteen; consequent- ly, the women of India would be on the wane, did they wait for the limit at which it would be proper for a Lapland woman to marry; and the Lapland woman could not support the contin- gencies of marriage, did she attempt to regulate it by the usage of India. 7. The^evil consequences resulting from precocious unions in this country, are familiar to every body—they are not limited to the diminished vigour;* and-shortened life, of the male ; nor to the faded beauty, the bla'stetl health, and the premature old age of the female; for they are extended to their unhappy off- spring; on whom they have perhaps entailed a diminutive sta- ture^ debility of body, and imbecility of mind; or have handed down to them, strong predisposition t» consumption, riqkets/ scrofula, &c. It is therefore of the utmost consequence that parents do not consign their children to inevitable ill health, by consenting, or sometimes by urgingfchem to too early marriages; and on the part of the children themselves, that they do not yield themselves up to almost inevitable destruction, (especially the female,) by anticipating the eligible moment for marriage consummation. 8. We are however strong adVocates for early marriages, (agreeably to our definition of them;) we are persuaded of the importance of both their moral and political tendency; and we think they should be encouraged, wherever there is a rational expectation of both these great ends being answered. 9. The consequences of ill-assorted marriages were well known to the ancients, and were strictly forbidden by the Greek legis- lators; and though things have not proceeded to such length in this country, as to require the interference of the laws, it is nevertheless sufficiently common, to make a caution upon the point proper. Should no attention be paid to compatibility, the obvious and most desirable objects of marriage wUl be de- feated, and one great source of health and longevity destroyed;