Domestic medicine.

Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    priety of cramping her child’s feet by tight and ill-fitting shoes, and telling her how productive such compression of the feet is of corns and other tumours; till she lay aside the Chinese notion that unnaturally small feet is a beauty, she will turn a deaf ear to all such remonstrances. Until, indeed, female education is based upon sounder principles, and until a general outline of human physiology is made one of its elements, medical philanthropists may write and talk, but they will write and talk in vain upon all such subjects. To parents who are not slaves to the caprice of fashion, and are not obstinately wedded to the antiquated notions they have imbibed from those nurses and old women who fancy themselves much better instructors, on such subjects, than medical men, although the latter have not only an inti- mate knowledge of the structure of the human body, but have made the causes of its disease a special object of in- quiry, reflection, and study,—to such parents we would urgently recommend the following advice:— Let the dress of children be warm in winter, spring, and autumn ; let it combine lightness with warmth in summer, and let it be simple, and constructed in such a manner as to place no restraint upon the motions of any part of the body. If the pecuniary circumstances of the parents are incompatible with fine outer clothing, and a sufficiency of inner garments to insure frequent changes, by all means sacrifice the fine clothing to attain the latter object. Whether the child under two years of age has worn flannel next the skin or not, in such a variable climate as Britain, and particularly when they come to be exposed to cold and wet, children above this age ought to have a waistcoat of fine flannel next the skin, at least during autumn, winter, and spring; and if they show the least disposition to weakness of constitution, affections of the chest or bowels, they ought not to throw it aside even in summer. It is said to be more conducive to health to leave it off during the night; but children so often uncover the upper parts of their bodies during sleep, that, in our opinion, they ought to be provided with one flannel waistcoat for the day, and another for the night. Let children, therefore, have “ frequent changes of com- fortable and clean clothing, no undue exposure of neck, arms, or legs, and an entire avoidance of unequal or undue pressure by corsets, shoulder-straps, tight shoes, &c.”* “ The only way we can assist in forming a really fine figure, is to remove all restraint, and secure, as far as possible, so free an action to the muscles as will lead to their perfect develop- ment.”! Cleanliness.—To what has been already said on this subject little need now be added, except an injunction to scrupulous exactness and attention to frequent changes of clean clothing, and a rigid adherence to the daily ablution of the whole body with cold water and yellow soap, followed by brisk friction with a soft flesh glove or rough towel. Every nursery ought to be provided with a large shallow tub, in which the child could sit or kneel, and first be washed, or, if old enough, wash himself all over with a large sponge, then make two or three plunges amongst the water, and after- wards be quickly dried, rubbed, and dressed ; the face, neck, and ears should then get an additional washing ; the nails, teeth, and hah-, ought to be carefully cleaned and brushed every day; everything, in short, should be done to make the child acquire habits of cleanliness, even to the extent of debarring him from the company of the family till he is in every way fit to make his appearance at table. During infancy, the head requires great attention, and ought to be washed every day; but after two years of age once a-week will be sufficient, if it is carefully combed and brushed every morning. The hair of boys ought always to be kept short, being most conducive to health; and even in girls, under twelve, long hair, when it is allowed, as it often is, to become a receptacle for all kinds of filth and vermin, is not only very disgusting, but most prejudicial to health. Unless, therefore, parents or nurses have ample time at their command to devote to its thorough cleaning every day, the * Dr. Fleetwood Churchill on the Diseases of Children. t Dr. Underwood on Diseases of Children. hair of young girls had far better be kept at the length of three or four inches at most. In washing the head, soap ought to be used, or what is recommended as preferable, both for the growth of the hair and the removal of scurf and scales—the yolk of an egg. Sleep.—As the child advances in age, a less amount of sleep will be sufficient; but, as we remarked in last chapter, an hour or two’s sleep in the middle of the day, for the first three or four years, is of the greatest utility in restoring that vital energy which is so soon exhausted in childhood, and in promoting the healthy growth and vigour of the infant frame. During the first epoch of infant life, the child should sleep with its mother, both for her convenience and its own com- fort ; but afterwards it ought to sleep in a crib or small bed by itself; and it ought on no account to be allowed to sleep with an old person, or one in ill health. The sleeping-room should be as large and airy as possible, comfortably warm, and free from draughts; and to permit the free access of air, the child’s bed should have no curtains. Children ought to be sent to sleep early; seven o’clock, or half-past seven, being the latest they should be allowed to be out of bed, till they reach the age of eight years. From that period till about the fourteenth year, they ought to be asleep by half-past eight, or nine o’clock at latest. Nothing is more liable to retard the growth, to injure the health, to expend the vital energies, to produce a weak, worn-out, and ghastly aspect, and to encourage indolent and irregular habits, than late hours for children and young persons. There is both sound common sense and true philosophy in the old proverb, “ Early to bed, early to rise, is the way to be healthy, wealthy, and v:ise.” Air and Exercise.—If there is one point more than another in which the fashions and customs of the greater portion of the middle and upper classes of this country, are utterly at variance with the precepts of nature and the laws of physio- logy, it is in the amount and manner of exercise which they allow their children, and more particularly their girls, from two to fourteen years of age. For the first few years of infant life, they are confined for the greater portion of the day to the nursery, and when they are sent out for air and exercise, they are not permitted to use their limbs, but car- ried out in the nurse’s arms, with their legs and under part of the body squeezed together, and their feet, arms, and hands often chilled with cold. Dressed out in all their showy finery, which is much more thought of and more prized than strength of limb and vigour of muscle, their exercise for the next three or four years is a regular soldier-like march or drill, on a straight road, once or twice a-day, with toes out, back and shoulders straight, head erect, no allowance to move to this side or that, and if they dare j ump aside and tumble on the grass, or kneel down and pick flowers, they incur the heavy displeasure of the mother and nurse for being so naughty as to spoil their very pretty and very becoming dress! While yet mere infants, at the age of four or five years, they are confined in the school-room or sent out to school, the great object being to make them prodigies of learning— little old men and little old women. These schools, and particularly infant schools, are quite misnamed; they ought rather to be called infant prisons ; they are indeed worse than prisons: by the system of teaching practised in them, not only are the mental faculties of infants and children urged to premature activity, at the expense of the healthy growth, of the future strength, and of the robust vigour of the body, but these very faculties themselves are cramped and checked in their development, the minds of the poor victims are overtasked and get confused, an innate hatred and dread of books take deep root, so that their chance of displaying even a mediocrity of talent in mature years is but very small. In these respects the children of the poor, during the earlier years of their existence, are placed in much more favourable circumstances than the children of their richer neighbours. With no fine clothes to spoil, no rigid rules of discipline to adhere to, no capricious nurse to interfere with them, they are allowed to choose the mode and amount of their exercise,