Domestic medicine; or, the family physician. Being an attempt to render the medical art more generally useful, by showing people what is in their own power, both with respect to the prevention and cure of diseases ... / by William Buchan. With notes, etc., by a medical gentleman.

  • Buchan, William, 1729-1805
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine; or, the family physician. Being an attempt to render the medical art more generally useful, by showing people what is in their own power, both with respect to the prevention and cure of diseases ... / by William Buchan. With notes, etc., by a medical gentleman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    39/814 (page 15)
    Ibme time in the fituation mentioned above, they are often fent into the country to be nurfed in a cold houfe Is it any wonder, if a child, from fuch a tranfition, catches a mortal cold, or con- trads fome other fatal difeafe? When an infant is' kept too hot, its lungs not being fufficiently ex- panded, are apt to remain weak and flaccid for life ; from whence proceed coughs, confumptions, and other difeafes of the breafl. It would ajnfwer little purpofe to fpecify the par- ticular pieces of drefs proper for an infant. Thefe ever will vary in diflerent places, according to cu- ftom and the humour of parents. The great rule to be obferved is. That a child have no more clothes than are neceffary to keep it warm^ and that they be quite eafy for its body. Stays are the very bane of children. A volume w^ould not fufflce to point out all the ill effeds of this ufelefs piece ot drefs. The raadnefs in favour flays feems, however, to have been at a height; and it is to be hoped the world wdll, in time, be- come wife enough to know, that the human fhape does not folely depend upon whale-bone and bend- leather f. We fliall only add, with refped to the clothes of children, that they ought to be kept very clean. Children perfpire more than adults ; and, if their clothes be not frequently changed, they become very hurtful. Dirty clothes not only gall and fret the tender fkins of infants, but likewife occafion ill fmells; and, what is worfe, tend to produce vermin and cutaneous difeafes. Cleanlinefs is not only agreeable to the eye, but tends greatly to preferve the health of children. It promotes the perfpiration; and, by that means, frees * Cadogan. t Stays made of bend-lcathcr are worn by all the women of lower itation in many parts of England.