The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother

THE EDUCATION OF THE SENSE OF HEARING.

The education of this sense is second only in importance to that of the sight. First of all, attention should be directed to the preservation of the health of the organ.

Many cases of deafness among children originate in long standing diseases of the nose and throat; others in obstinate skin affections; while not a few are caused by a want of cleanliness, which permits of the accumulation of wax in the passage of the ear.

The sensibility of the nerve which conveys impressions of sound from the ear to the brain can be greatly increased by exercise and training, when the organ is in a condition of health. It can be so highly developed that the ear will readily catch very feeble sounds.

A learned physician has recently pointed out with some force that sufficient attention is not paid to the conformation of the pavilion of the ear. Upon this conformation much of the delicacy of hearing depends. The hats which children wear, usually compress and deform the pavilion. Physiologists have shown that it ought to make an angle of about thirty degrees with the skull, in order to best collect sonorous vibrations. This angle is very much diminished by our artificial head-dresses, and to the detriment of acuteness of hearing.

Can education do much for the improvement of hearing? Everyday experience answers in the affirmative. There is an exercise which cannot be too highly commended to parents, which consists in inducing in play their children, even those very young, to detect from as far as they can faint and fading sounds. It is a game which amuses them much, and it is a pleasing sight to see the rivalry of several young children, each of whom with head bent forward, is earnestly trying to distinguish a receding sound longer than its fellows. A little ingenuity will readily devise amusing and useful plays with this object in view.

The training of the remaining special senses is of comparatively minor importance to that of those we have been considering, and need not detain us. We will only remind the reader of the wonderful adroitness and delicacy of touch possessed by the blind as an example of what this sense is capable of when educated.

HOME MANAGEMENT OF SOME COMMON
DISEASES OF CHILDREN.

CROUP.

Although this disease is said to be more severe in Europe than in our own country, and more frequent in our northern than in our southern States, most American mothers, in all parts of the country, know and dread its alarming and often fatal attacks. It is a disease of childhood, but not of early infancy, being rarely met with under the first or after the tenth year of life.

Children who have once had this affection are very liable to another attack upon exposure to any of the causes which excite it. It has been noticed also that croup runs in certain families, and not unfrequently, children of a ruddy complexion and of a fleshy and apparently vigorous appearance are those most subject to it.

Among the causes of croup, which should be specially guarded against by mothers of croupy children, are checking of the perspiration, sudden alterations in the dress, change of climate, and even in some cases a residence at the sea-side. Croup also often follows measles, and at times is epidemic.

The unmistakable symptoms of croup quickly show themselves at the outset of the disease. Sometimes a sore throat, a short, dry cough, and a slight harshness of breathing, usher in the affection; in other instances, that which first attracts attention is hoarseness in the cry or tone of the voice, attended with, or quickly followed by, feverishness, thirst, and dulness, or fretfulness; while in another class of cases the disease suddenly developes itself without any noticeable premonitory signs. In all these cases the characteristic symptoms of the disease commonly make their appearance at night. The child's sleep is disturbed by a peculiar clanging cough, which, when once heard, will ever afterwards be remembered and easily recognised. The skin becomes hot and dry, the breathing difficult, the cough more frequent, and the child is soon awakened, frightened, and struggling for breath. With flushed face and staring eyes, the little sufferer starts up, grasping the throat with the hand as if seeking to remove some encircling pressure which is choking it. Each drawing in of the breath is attended with a hissing sound, the redness of the face and neck increases, and speech becomes impossible. This attack may pass off in a few minutes, or be prolonged, with varying degrees of intensity, for an hour. Almost invariably, however, it is followed by a period of relief, in some instances so complete as to deceive the anxious relatives into the belief that the disease is over and the child safe. This false confidence is, unfortunately, generally soon rudely dissipated by a return of the attack in all its first violence.

The disease attains its height by the end of the second, or at the latest the close of the third day. The fever is now the hottest, the tongue becomes white, the face and forehead red and covered with perspiration, the lips at times purple, the veins of the neck and temples distended, the countenance distressed, and the voice whispered or suppressed. The cough is now also most frequent and noisy; its peculiar sound has been compared to that made by a fowl when caught in the hand. The thirst is great, but swallowing difficult. The child often inserts its fingers in the mouth as if trying to clutch something which closes the air passages. These symptoms may either increase to the rapid exhaustion of the patient or take a favorable turn. One of the first evidences of the latter is a change in the character of the cough, which, although it may not lessen in force or frequency, becomes lower in tone, less dry, and finally moist.

The treatment should be most prompt, active, and energetic. Few diseases require, for the safety of the patient, such quick and efficient aid at the outset. Prepare at once sufficient hot water for a bath, and make a fire in the room. In the meanwhile, immerse the child's arms in some hot water, and apply cloths, wrung thoroughly dry from it, to the throat. Give the child a tea-spoonful of powdered alum in a little syrup, molasses and water, or honey. Repeat the dose in a quarter of an hour if full vomiting be not excited by the first tea-spoonful. So soon as the warm bath is ready (the water should have the temperature of 98° Fahrenheit), place the child in it, and keep up the heat of the bath by the occasional addition of hot water. Have hot towels in readiness to dry the skin completely, and a warm blanket in which to wrap the patient. See that the temperature of the room is raised to about 66° Fahrenheit, and that it does not fall below this. Moisten the air by putting a kettle of boiling water on the fire and diffusing the steam from it by means of a long roll of paper fixed to the spout.

The warm bath and the emetic will usually relieve the breathing; but no matter how complete this relief may appear to be, nor how quietly the little one may sleep, it must be carefully watched all night, so that the first return of unfavorable symptoms may be promptly treated. In all instances also, however favorably the case may progress, the patient must be confined to bed for several days, and the temperature of the room, and the moisture of the air, carefully maintained, as directed for the first treatment of the attack. If the child has had previous attacks, or if the weather be cold and inclement, it should be kept in this warm moist atmosphere for two weeks. Were these precautions known and heeded we should have to lament fewer fatal cases of croup.

Of course in this, as in all other serious diseases, skilled medical advice should be secured as quickly as possible. We have given the above directions, not only for those so situated that they cannot secure medical aid, but also for all others, in order that no valuable time may be lost in commencing the treatment, that the efforts of the physician may be intelligently seconded and carried out, and that the importance of promptness at the outset, and prolonged care during convalescence, maybe impressed upon every mother who consults these pages.

HEAD COLDS.

Young infants are very liable to take cold when being washed, or carried about the house into rooms and passages of different temperatures. This cold often shows itself by sneezing and “snuffles” in the nose. In a short time a discharge from the nostrils appears, the eyes become watery, and the voice sounds “through the nose.” The skin is hotter than natural, and the infant cross. If the child be able to talk, it will complain of headache, some soreness in the limbs and back, and of a burning, uncomfortable feeling in the nose. These symptoms last for three or four days, when in mild ordinary cases they begin to disappear. After one or more attacks of this kind the child is very liable to a return on every slight exposure to cold.

The treatment required in these cases is mild and simple, but must not be neglected. A warm bath should be taken at bed-time for a number of days; the patient should be kept in an even temperature and out of draughts. The best relief to the distress in the nose, from which the child suffers, is afforded by dipping a hollow sponge in hot water, squeezing it nearly dry, and applying it over the nose and forehead. The common domestic practice of greasing the nose is also beneficial. The wearing of a flannel cap until the disease is cured is a remedy strongly recommended by the late Dr. Meigs. A flannel cap will also often prevent the recurrence of the complaint in those very subject to it.

FITS.

Infants and young children are much more liable to fits and convulsions than adults. The causes which excite them are numerous, and should be generally known, that they may be as far as possible avoided.

Many infants are born with a tendency to fits. The children of feeble parents, or of those who have married very early or very late in life, are apt to be afflicted with a predisposition to them. Great fright or severe shock received by the mother during the latter months of her pregnancy may give rise to convulsions in the child soon after birth.

Pale, badly nourished, soft, flabby children, and those of a sensitive, nervous temperament, are more liable to fits than those who are ruddy and hardy. Hence we find convulsions more common and fatal among the poor and miserable than among the 'well-to-do' and comfortable. City children are more subject to the complaint than the country born and bred.

Fits are very frequent among infants while teething. In such cases lancing the gum secures immediate relief. Another cause of fits, and one which every mother should know, is the giving of meat to the child before its teeth are cut. In such cases the attack is sudden, and often very severe. Children most affected in this way by animal food are those with water on the brain, and those of a very delicate constitution. The juice or broth of meat is in some such instances sufficient to produce fits. The remedy consists in the institution of a milk diet. In all doubtful cases avoid a meat diet in any form, and watch the result.

Strong mental emotions, such as fright, shame, or anger, may cause a fit in a child. A nurse in England threatened to throw a child out of the window if he did not stop crying; the little boy fell at once into convulsions, from which he died.

Among other known causes of fits are confinement to heated, badly ventilated rooms, tight bandaging, and sudden exposure to severe cold or heat.

In treating of the influence of the mother's mind over the nursing child (p. 251), we mentioned a number of instances of children thrown into convulsions by changes in the quality of the milk caused by the mental emotion of the mother. The importance of the subject induces us to quote here the corroborating remarks of Dr. Churchill, in the last edition of his standard work on diseases of children. 'During the first year of life, convulsions may not unfrequently be traced to the milk of the mother or nurse disagreeing with the infant, or having been disordered temporarily by fright, passion, or suffering. Sœmmering mentions a curious case of a woman whose milk agreed with her own child, but caused convulsions in all others. M. Guersant relates the instance of a woman deserted by her husband, and in her distress her infant had an attack each time it took the breast. Dr. Underwood mentions a mother who nursed her child immediately after witnessing a sudden death; the child was attacked by convulsions, after which it remained comatose for thirty-six hours, but ultimately recovered. Numerous cases are on record of convulsions supervening upon violent passion in the nurse. I have witnessed more than one case resulting from the mother suckling her child during a time of severe affliction and distress.'

We deem it useless to describe a fit. Almost every one has seen it, and at once recognises it. We shall proceed, therefore, at once to the treatment.

When a child is attacked with a fit the dress should be loosened, all tight bandages and pins removed, and plenty of fresh air admitted into the room. It should not be held upright in the arms, but placed in a lying position. A warm bath (that most useful remedy in so many of the ailments of children) should be speedily prepared, and the child immersed for a few minutes, then removed, dried, and wrapped in a blanket. A hot mustard foot-bath is also of service. The cause of the fit should be at once sought, for upon it will of course depend to a great extent the treatment required. If the child be teething, and the gums be found to be red and swollen, they should be lanced. If the child has eaten too much, or of improper food, an emetic should be given. A little mustard and salt mixed in a tumbler of warm water affords a ready, safe, and effectual emetic.

The dashing of cold water upon the face will sometimes promptly end the fit. The application of powdered ice in a bladder, or of cold water cloths to the head, is of service where the face is much flushed and the movements very violent.

Children subject to fits should live in a well warmed house. By this we do not mean that the rooms and hall ways should be kept hot, still less that they should be close and improperly ventilated. The temperature of the bed-room should not be lower than 70 degrees, and great care should be taken during cold weather to avoid chilling the child outdoors.

Rubbing of the child's body once a day with good salad oil is an excellent and readily applied remedy in these cases. The little patients do not ordinarily object to it. As it is a procedure calculated to improve the general health, we strongly recommend every mother whose child has frequent fits, to try it.

The dress of the child should be warm, loose, and comfortable. Perfect quietness is important for a time after attacks. Do not excite the child by seeking to amuse it. Let it sleep as much as it will.

In those cases in which a fit has been followed by weakness of the limbs, medical assistance will of course be procured. As a rule, recovery in such instances is slow, but, when properly directed, perfect. Change of scene, country air, and exercise, friction of the body with a flesh-brush or salt towel, salt water baths, and electricity, are all valuable agents towards cure.

NOSE-BLEED.

Bleeding from the nose may be produced by a blow or by over-exercise of the child at play. In either case the trouble is usually a trifling one. Some children, however, are liable to attacks of nose-bleed coming on without any assignable causes. One of the consequences of scarlet fever and whooping cough is sometimes a tendency to repeated and serious spells of bleeding from the nose.

The treatment in these cases consists in quieting the alarm of the child if it be frightened, and in applying cold water or pounded ice to the nose and forehead and to the back of the neck. It is because of its coldness that the key placed down the back, as so commonly advised in domestic practice, does good.

An exaggerated idea of the amount of blood lost is often a cause of distress to parents. They forget that the child has been bleeding in a vessel of water, and that a very little blood darkly colors a large quantity of water.

Bleeding from the nose is sometimes a favorable symptom, as when it occurs during a fever, or when in girls approaching womanhood it precedes the expected signs of puberty. It is an unfavorable symptom, however, in scrofulous children and in girls affected with green-sickness, as in these instances it aggravates the existing disorders.

In those rare cases of protracted bleeding which resist the remedies we have mentioned, it may be necessary for the surgeon to plug the nostrils, both in front and at their opening into the throat.

This extreme measure is fortunately scarcely ever called for, and can only be carried out by the physician.

WORMS.

Children are often thought to have worms when entirely free from them. There is hardly a symptom of any disease which has not been supposed by some to be a sign of the presence of worms. A child suffering from some other complaint is, therefore, not unfrequently dosed with vermifuges to its injury. We can give the mother one symptom of worms which is infallible. It is the only one upon which she can rely, namely, the detection of worms in the stools of the child. Until these expelled intruders are actually found she should be slow to believe that the child is thus affected, and still slower to give worm medicine. Before beginning treatment, let the mother wait until the need of it is made out by the result of the examination we have mentioned.

The treatment of the ordinary worms to which children are subject is simple and usually speedily efficacious. Commence with a dose of Epsom salts, of magnesia, or of cream of tartar, as may be preferred. The next day administer a vermifuge, of which the best and pleasantest is santonine. Obtain from the druggist three or four three-grain powders of this medicine. Give the half or the whole of one of these powders, according to the age of the child, at bed-time. The next morning administer a purgative dose of oil or salts. Repeat this treatment every other day until three doses of santonine have been taken. Or, from two to six grains, according to the age of the patient, may be dissolved in two table-spoonsful of castor-oil, and a tea-spoonful given every hour until it operates.

An excellent domestic remedy for worms, one which was a great favorite with the celebrated Dr. Rush of Philadelphia, is common salt. For a child two or three years old, the proper dose is a tea-spoonful mixed in a wine-glassful of water. When the child can be got to take it in sufficient quantity, this remedy is a very efficient one.

Most cases of supposed worms in children are best treated by regulating the diet, by attention to the air and exercise of the child, by warm baths, and by endeavoring to improve the appetite, the digestion, and the strength. The food should be plain and unirritating (bread, milk, rice, arrowroot, chicken, lamb or mutton broth, beef-tea, mutton chop, young chicken); the meals should be taken in smaller quantities than usual, and at regular intervals. Sweets and confectionery should be forbidden, and but few vegetables permitted for awhile. A perseverance in this regimen for a short time will usually cure the little patient without the necessity of resorting to any vermifuge.

Worms are most frequent between the ages of three and ten years. Girls are oftener affected than boys. A tendency to worms is hereditary. Cases occur more frequently during the spring and autumn than during the other seasons. A residence in cold, damp, unhealthy situations leads to their production in many instances.

BED-WETTING.

This troublesome disorder is not unfrequently met with in children—more especially boys—under twelve years of age. It is a mistake to suppose, as is done by some parents, that slothfulness or negligence is the invariable and only cause of this infirmity; on this point Dr. Vogel says:—'In most cases which I have observed, the children through their own sense of honor or on account of repeated punishments, had a lively interest in avoiding the accident, and yet were unable to do this without appropriate treatment pursued for months, and even years.' Dr. Tanner states:—'Very frequently this affection is the consequence of bad habits; being favored by the free use of fluids during the after part of the day, by exposure to cold in the night, and by lying on the back.'

The presence of worms in the bowels is one of the causes of this annoying ailment, and they should be sought for in all cases. Stone in the bladder sometimes occasions the affection, but in such instances other symptoms will soon point to the true nature of the trouble.

This subject is one of an importance which demands some attention from us in a work for parents. In the language of Dr. Vogel, 'the effects of this malady are unpleasant, for the psychical development in particular suffers. The repeated punishments which these children undergo blunt their sense of honor considerably; they become cowardly and deceitful, and have no personal spirit. If great and expensive cleanliness is not practised, the bed, and even the whole room, acquires a urinous odor, which contaminates the atmosphere and begets conditions by no means favorable to healthy growth. Such children may be ultimately attacked by indolent ulcers on the nates and lower extremities, the results of urinous excoriations.'

The only symptom ordinarily present is that the child towards morning or in the middle of the night wets the bed without waking. This may happen several times during the sleep, and recur every night. In some cases the act takes place only every other night, but it is rare that there is an interval of more than one night.

The cause of this failing is sometimes very simple and one easily remedied; for it is often the result of neglecting to take young children up once during the many hours they require for sleep. By attention to this matter and to the diet, the habit may be speedily broken. Unfortunately most cases are not so quickly amenable to treatment.

In the treatment of this infirmity, corporal punishment should not be thought of. It is useless, cruel, and unnatural. The child might as well be punished because it squints or has club-foot.

Care must be taken to see that the little patient eats or drinks nothing for several hours before bed-time. The child should also be awakened a little before midnight, and at a very early hour in the morning, and made to empty its bladder. It is of great importance to get the child to sleep upon its side or face, as lying upon the back is sure to increase the trouble. Indeed, it is frequently observed that the child always remains clean when it is prevented from turning upon its back during sleep. The difficulty lies in the prevention. The plan of tying a cloth or towel around the child with a knot over the spinal column, to awaken it by the pain when it rolls over upon the back, so often proposed, seems good advice easily followed. But practically it fails, as it is impossible, without making the bandage too tight, to keep it in place. The benefit which, in some instances, has followed the employment of a succession of small blisters directly over the lower part of the spinal column, is doubtless due to their forcing the child to sleep upon the face or side. The remedy is somewhat a painful one, but should be tried in obstinate cases.

The child's general health, if enfeebled, should be improved by cold baths, bitter tonics, and if possible a change of air. In no case should any mechanical means be employed to arrest the infirmity. Serious and even fatal results have followed such attempts.

If the precautions and simple remedies we have mentioned fail, recourse must be had to the family physician. The drugs which are of benefit are too powerful to be entrusted to any other hands. The hygienic method of cure we have pointed out will, if instituted early, be effectual in all excepting very obstinate cases, which latter indeed sometimes resist for a long time the best efforts of medical skill.

LOOSENESS OF THE BOWELS.

Children under one year of age should have two movements of the bowels in the twenty-four hours, and those from one to three years at least one stool a day.

A slight attack of looseness is often beneficial if it passes away within a day or two. It is easy, however, for such an attack to become hurtful, especially if the food be improper, or the weather warm. A looseness which is of no consequence in the winter may well excite uneasiness during the summer months.

Diarrhœa in a healthy child is ordinarily preceded by vomiting. If the diarrhœa persist long, the little patient is much prostrated by it, and rapidly reduced in flesh. Such an attack should never, therefore, be neglected.

In the case of an infant not weaned, it should be removed from the breast for half a day or more, that the stomach may have little or nothing to do. Barley or rice water, or ordinary water, may be given in small quantities at a time to relieve the thirst. This in many cases will be all the treatment required.

In the case of an elder child, all meat and vegetables should be at once forbidden, and the only food allowed for a day or two must be rice and milk, arrowroot, or milk and water.

The dose of castor oil which is so frequently given by nurses in these cases under the impression that the oil is 'healing,' is only of service when the diarrhœa has been caused by food of improper quality or quantity. It then aids nature in her efforts to get rid of the offending matter, which by its irritation is doing the mischief. In such instances one dose of the oil is quite sufficient. It has no 'healing' virtues, and should not be repeated from day to day.

Children who are teething are frequently affected with looseness. A warm bath every evening, and attention to the gums, will be ordinarily all that is required in these cases, at least during the cold months. It is of the utmost importance, however, during the summer that such patients, if living in the city, should be at once removed into the country; otherwise their lives are in danger.

Looseness of the bowels in children is usually best treated by careful management of the clothing and diet, by attention to all that affects the health, and by avoiding as much as possible the administration of medicines. No case should be allowed, however, to run on without seeking competent medical advice.

An excellent remedy for the diarrhœa of children is the subnitrate of bismuth.

This medicine may be disguised in the food, as in a case narrated by Dr. Inmann. A lad about ten years old was brought to him by an aunt, who stated that the boy suffered much from diarrhœa, and was emaciating visibly; that he would not try any domestic remedy, was an obstinate fellow, and determined to take no medicine. After sending the lad to another room the doctor recommended the lady to get some white bismuth and give it to the cook, telling her to mix a large pinch of it with some butter, and to send in the bread and butter so arranged that the lady would know which was for the boy. This was done. The lad was duly drugged without his knowledge, and the diarrhœa stopped in two days.

INDIGESTION.

Infants and young children suffer often from indigestion, or dyspepsia, as well as adults. One of the most frequent signs of this disorder is vomiting. But every infant which throws up its milk is not suffering from indigestion. Vomiting is sometimes a sign of health, and shows that the stomach is vigorous enough to free itself promptly from excess of food. The child is thus saved from the effects of over-feeding. The obvious remedy is to diminish the quantity of milk taken at each nursing or meal.

But vomiting from over-feeding is very different from that caused by irritation of the stomach, which causes it to reject proper food. The common sense of the mother will enable her easily to distinguish between the two sorts. In the former, the child remains cheerful, happy, and well nourished, scarcely changing countenance even while the superabundant milk is being returned from its stomach. In the latter, the child soon becomes pale, feeble, and distressed looking. Over-feeding, if persisted in, may occasion indigestion.

Indigestion during the first year of life shows itself by languor, pallor, and evident discomfort. The child wishes to be constantly at the breast, and suckles eagerly, but vomits the milk shortly after, usually curdled. The bowels are either constipated or too loose. The most prominent and often the only symptoms are this alternation of vomiting and an eager desire to take the breast, associated with loss of flesh and strength. The child is evidently not nourished by the food it takes, and if relief be not afforded it sinks, and dies from starvation in the course of a month or two.

Children who are weaned abruptly, and at a very early period, are liable to a serious form of indigestion, which may come on in a few days after weaning, or not for several weeks.

Older children are liable to slight attacks of indigestion, which are attended with vomiting or purging, or both, for a few days, when the stomach recovers its health. In some cases, however, the derangement continues longer, the child then losing its appetite, and suffering from colic, and becoming fretful, pale, and weak. The breath becomes sour, and the passages green. Such cases require careful watching and treatment, especially during the hot weather of the summer.

In infants at the breast indigestion is usually caused by giving the breast too often or by an excess or change in the quality of the milk. Errors in diet on the part of the mother, and other faults which we have pointed out in our chapter on nursing, are the most frequent causes of this ailment. In children who are weaned the causes are almost invariably improper food or food taken too frequently, or in too large quantities. The hint should be taken when a child rejects its food, to change it, or give it less. Instead of this, too frequently the child is urged to take more, and thus derange the stomach.

The treatment of indigestion in childhood is usually easy and satisfactory. The first thing is to look to and regulate the quantity and quality of the food. If it be due to excess of food, this is easily remedied. If due to improper quality, change it promptly. When the mother's health is such that her milk is found to frequently or constantly disagree with her child, a suitable wet-nurse must be procured.

In most cases the attack is mild, and readily yields to a few hours' abstinence from food. As it often happens, especially in artificially-fed infants, that the gastric juice is more acid than it should be, great benefit is derived from the use of precipitated chalk or carbonate of soda. A few grains of either of these, given several times a day for a few days, will be found to effect a surprising change and alone restore the appetite and digestion.

In older children an attack of indigestion should be the signal for putting them upon a simpler and more restricted diet for a time. Milk, eggs, arrowroot, tapioca, sago, panada, &c., are better than animal food. If the child becomes much weakened, jellies, chicken, lamb, mutton, or oyster broth, beef tea, or wine whey, should be given to check the tendency to exhaustion.

We repeat, that most cases of indigestion in infants and children yield promptly to an immediate change in the diet, without medicine.

HINTS ON HOME GOVERNMENT.

On this subject, as it may be regarded as outside of our domain of hygiene, we have but few words to say. We wish, however, in the interests of medicine and hygiene, to insist upon the necessity of training children to prompt, implicit obedience to the parental voice. As physicians, we have seen the spoilt, undisciplined child, when sick, rebellious alike to persuasion and command, refusing food and medicine, revolting against the slightest examination, and by its violence and capriciousness, converting a slight illness into a dangerous one. For a child unaccustomed to obedience there is no proper treatment possible when sick; nor when well is there any proper care possible for the preservation of the health. What it wants, and not what it ought to have, is given it, and every one knows that a child's instincts are no guide to health. With health, happiness is sacrificed also. There is no surer way of making a child miserable than by accustoming it to obtain all it wishes, and to encounter no will but its own. Its desires grow by what they feed upon. As a French writer on education has well expressed it: 'At first it will want the cane you hold in your hand, then your watch, then the bird it sees flying in the air, and then the star twinkling overhead. How, short of omnipotence, is it possible to gratify its ever-growing wants?' Accustom the child to hear 'no' and 'must,' but let these hard words be softened by voice and manner—an art in which every true mother excels.

But, on the other hand, do not harass the child by needless restrictions, nor worry it by excess of management. We desire to call attention here to the words of an eminent English divine and learned writer, Archbishop Whately:—

'Most carefully should we avoid the error which some parents, not (otherwise) deficient in good sense commit, of imposing gratuitous restrictions and privations, and purposely inflicting needless disappointments, for the purpose of inuring children to the pains and troubles they will meet with in after life. Yes; be assured they will meet with quite enough in every portion of life, including childhood, without your strewing their paths with thorns of your own providing. And often enough you will have to limit their amusements for the sake of needful study, to restrain their appetites for the sake of health, to chastise them for faults, and in various ways to inflict pain or privations for the sake of avoiding some greater evils. Let this always be explained to them whenever it is possible to do so; and endeavor in all cases to make them look on the parent as never the voluntary giver of anything but good. To any hardships which they are convinced you inflict reluctantly, and to those which occur through the dispensation of the All-wise, they will more easily be trained to submit with a good grace, than to any gratuitous sufferings devised for them by fallible man. To raise hopes on purpose to produce disappointment, to give provocation merely to exercise the temper, and, in short, to inflict pain of any kind, merely as a training for patience and fortitude—this is a kind of discipline which man should not presume to attempt. If such trials prove a discipline not so much of cheerful fortitude as of resentful aversion and suspicious distrust of the parent as a capricious tyrant, you will have only yourself to thank for the result.' It is a matter of common observation that those who complain of their fortune and lot in life have often to complain only of their own conduct. The same is true of those who complain of their children. They have themselves only to blame in each case.

Parents who do not appreciate the responsibilities of their position usually err on the side of over-indulgence to their children; on the contrary, those fully alive to the importance of home discipline often err on the side of over-regulation. To the latter, we commend the reply of an old lady to the anxious inquiry made by the mother of a too rigorously disciplined child as to what course should be pursued, 'I recommend, my dear, a little wholesome neglect.'

Lessons of truthfulness; of fortitude in bearing pain and disappointment; of the duty of right doing, because it is right and not because it is the best policy; of frugality and industry; of self-denial, contentment, and charity, should be early impressed upon the plastic mind of infancy. We wish also, in this connection, to quote the words of a wise physician and observer of men, that 'the little child who is brought up to repeat short and simple prayers at his mother's knees, has a rule of conduct thereby instilled into him which will probably never be forgotten; and, in after life he may not only look back to these beginnings with feelings of reverence and love, but the recollection of them may serve to strengthen him in some good resolution, and help him to resist many a powerful temptation.'

We have had occasion frequently in various parts of this work to point out the intimate relations which exist between the physical and mental nature of parents and their offspring. Like parent, like child. The same close connection and sympathy extends to the moral and religious character; hence that direction and training which relies largely upon the force of parental example is the most effective method of home government. Virtuous precepts, or rigidly enforced rules of conduct, avail little unless the parent keeps the path to which he points the child.

'Well, upon my word, Mrs. Primrose, you have the handsomest children in the whole country.' 'Ah! neighbor,' replied the wife of the Vicar of Wakefield, 'they are as heaven made them—handsome enough if they be good enough—handsome is that handsome does.'

IS THE RACE DEGENERATING?

This is a question which perplexes some minds in our times. A German author of note has recently written a volume to prove that each generation is feebler than the preceding. Old physicians say that in their youth diseases of exhaustion were rarer than now-a-days. For this our habits of life, the pressure on our nervous systems, the prevalence of hereditary diseases, and the excessive use of narcotics and stimulants, are held responsible. 'The fathers,' say these croakers, 'have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'

We attach little weight to these gloomy views. There are plenty of facts on the other side. The suits of old armour still preserved in our museums prove that, as a rule, we have slightly gained in weight and size. Tables of life insurance companies and reports of statistics show that the average length of human life is greater than it ever was. Dr. Charles D. Meigs used to state in his lectures that the size of the head of American infants at birth is somewhat greater than in the Old World.

That there are more numerous diseases than formerly, is not true; but it is true that we know more, for we have learned to detect them more readily and to examine them more minutely. This is especially true of such as are peculiar to women. Within the last ten or twenty years so much that is of sovereign importance has been contributed to this department of medical science, that it is hardly possible for one to become an expert in it unless he gives it his whole attention.

To avoid the tendency to debilitated frames and chronic diseases, woman should therefore learn not only the laws of her own physical life, but the relations in which she stands to the other sex. Thus she can guard her own health, and preserve her offspring from degeneracy. It is only by enlightenment, and the extension of knowledge on the topics relating to soundness of body and mind, that we can found rational hopes of a permanent and wide-spread improvement of the race.

Some have maintained, not understanding the bearing of the facts, that such degeneracy is more conspicuous in the frame of woman than anywhere else. They quote the narratives of travellers, who describe with what fortitude—we might almost say with what indifference—the Indian women, and those of other savage races, bear the pangs of childbirth, and how little the ordeal weakens them. A squaw will turn aside for an hour or two when on the march, bear a child, wash it in some stream, bind it on the top of her load, and shouldering both, quietly rejoin the vagrant troop. Our artificial life seems indeed, in this respect, to be to blame; but if we look closer, we can learn that these wild women often perish alone, that they are rarely fertile, that unnatural labors are not unknown, and that the average duration of their life is decidedly less than among the females in civilised States.

HEALTH IN MARRIAGE.

THE PERILS OF MATERNITY.

In the early part of this work we quoted some authorities to show that those women who choose single life as their portion do not escape the ills of existence, nor do they protract their days, but, on the contrary, as shown by extensive statistics, are more prone to affections of the mind, and die earlier. While, therefore, nature thus rewards those who fulfil the functions of their being, by taking part in the mysterious processes of reproduction, and perpetuating the drama of existence, it is true also that she associates these privileges with certain deprivations and suffering. We do not wish to throw around the married state any charms which are not its own. Rather is it our aim to portray with absolute, and therefore instructive, fidelity all that this condition offers of unfavorable as well as favorable aspects.

Let us say at once, maternity has its perils,—perils as peculiar and as inevitable as those which pertain to single life. Our present purpose is to mention these, and by stating their nature and what are their causes, so far as known, to put married women on their guard against them. Some are almost trifling, at least not involving danger to life; others most harassing to the sufferer and to her friends.

We shall now consider the principal diseases to which married women are exposed from pregnancy, from childbirth, and from nursing.

DISEASES OF PREGNANCY.

Again, the mother of a large family, but the mistress of a small income, is distressed by the thought of additional expense, which it seems to her, particularly in her nervous state, impossible to meet. This condition of protracted anxiety is ill fitted to enable her to resist any tendency to disease to which she may be exposed. Indeed, prolonged vexation from these and other causes not unfrequently tend to puerperal mania (a disease of which we shall shortly have something to say), or to some other nervous affection.

The wife during pregnancy should therefore be treated with unusual kindness by those about her, and every attempt made to soften her lot. The erroneous impression prevails among some that the pregnant wife should enure herself to toil and hardship. This notion is doubtless due to the observation that domestic animals that are subjected to a life of labor bring forth their young with little suffering. 'The cow in the country farm living unfettered in the meadow until the day of calving, has in general a safe and easy labor. The poor beast, on the contrary, which is kept in a town dairy, has a time so incredibly dangerous that the proprietor generally sells off his stock every year, and replaces it with cows in calf; such cows not being put into the stalls till within six or eight days of the expected period of labor. The deduction from this is that an artificial mode of life—a life maintained by improper food, and without a sufficient supply of pure air, or a due amount of exercise—has a most deleterious influence upon the process of labor; and not that a toilsome existence, embittered with all the pains and anxieties of poverty, gives comparative immunity from danger in the hour of childbirth.' One of the discomforts of pregnancy is—

MORNING SICKNESS.

This affection, when confined, as is usually the case, to the morning and early part of the day, rarely requires much medical care. Its absence, which, as we have said, is a frequent cause of miscarriage, is more to be regretted than its presence especially as it is apt to be replaced by more serious troubles.

Relief will be afforded by washing the face and hands in cold water, and taking a cup of milk or a little coffee and a biscuit or sandwich, before raising the head from the pillow in the morning, remaining in bed about a quarter of an hour after this early meal; then dressing quickly, and immediately going out for a half-hour's walk. Rest in a half-recumbent posture during the day, particularly after meals, is beneficial. The affection is mostly a nervous one, and is best combated by eating. The food should be plain and unirritating, but nutritious, and should be taken frequently, in small quantities at a time.

When the nausea and vomiting are excessive, and continue during the day, there is generally some disordered condition of the digestive apparatus.

This may be corrected by taking at night a tea-spoonful of the confection of senna, a pleasant preparation of this ordinarily disagreeable medicine, and by drinking three times a day, before each meal, a wine-glassful of a tea made with columbo. Half an ounce of powdered columbo should be added, for this purpose, to a pint of boiling water.

Dr. John H. Griscom of New York recommends the bromide of potassium, which is a harmless medicine for domestic practice, as affording the most useful means of arresting the nausea attendant on pregnancy.

The following prescription may be compounded by any druggist, and will often be found very effective: