On the nature, causes, prevention and treatment of acute hydrocephalus, or water-brain-fever / [Thomas Smith].

  • Smith, Thomas, 1813-1887.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature, causes, prevention and treatment of acute hydrocephalus, or water-brain-fever / [Thomas Smith]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    now nourish with her milk, what she sees living, be¬ come a human creature, and imploring the assistance of its mother. Do you imagine that nature gave women breasts, like a sort of beautiful excrescences to adorn their chest, and not to nourish children ?” It may be asked of me in the event of death, in¬ disposition, or other obstacle to the performance of this duty, what substitute I would recommend for the mother’s milk, where a wet nurse cannot be had. My reply shall be brief; few, very few, children of naturally robust constitutions, thrive from artificial nursing, and to bring up children by the hand, who are delicate or prematurely born, is generally to seal their doom. Such children may survive a few tedious years, dragging on a miserable existence, but rarely, if ever, possess vital energy sufficient to enable them to bear up against the multifarious disorders of infancy, which are continually besetting them. The diet of children brought up by the hand, ought to assimilate, as near as possible, to the milk secreted by the healthy maternal breast. Ass’s or goat’s milk, if procurable, diluted with water, and sweetened with sugar, is decidedly the best food for such infants; or where these are not to be had, equal parts of cow’s milk and pure dis¬ tilled or boiled water, or in some cases for the delicate, with lime water, may be substituted. No child ought to be allowed to take the breast when¬ ever it pleases, or as often as it pleases, or as much as it pleases; and when nourished on artificial diet, K