Advice to a Wife and Mother | Project Gutenberg

15. A nursery-basin (Wedgewood’s make is considered the best) holding six or eight quarts of water, according to the size of the patient—whether she be either a little or a large woman. It will only be necessary to fill it about one-third full with water: this, of course, is only for the sitz-bath—the sitting-bath. The same basin for the previous washing ought to have been three parts full of water.

16. Rock-salt makes the strongest bath, but is much more difficult to dissolve in the water than either table salt or bay salt—the two latter being so readily dissolved.

18. There is an admirable review in the Spectator (Feb. 17th, 1866) of a work on The Breakfast Book, in which the reviewer proves the importance of people making good and substantial breakfasts, and in which he indicates the kinds most suitable for the purpose. I have, in the text, availed myself of many of his valuable suggestions.

19. For the preservation of the teeth and gums, see Pye Chavasse’s Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children, under the head of “On the Teeth and the Gums.”

26. Pye Chavasse’s Advice to a Mother, Ninth Edition.

27. Ecclesiastes, v. 12.

28. Light. By Forbes Winslow, M.D.

29. I have entered so fully into the evil effects of tight lacing in my other book, Advice to a Mother, that I consider it quite unnecessary to say more in this place on the subject. Moreover, it is not so necessary now as in the early editions of my two works to dwell upon the subject, as, I am happy to say, the evil effects of tight lacing are at the present time better understood. Stays used to be formidable-looking apparatuses; indeed, they were instruments of torture. Now they are more simple, and therefore more suitable.

30. From a notice of this work in The Reader of 14th of February, 1863.

32. From a notice of this work in The Reader of 14th of February, 1868.

33. Poems, by the author of The Patience of Hope.

35. “Hold idleness to be the mother of sin; it both robs thee of the good thou hast and hinders thee of what thou hast not.”—“On some Guesses at Truth,” in Good Words, June, 1862.

38. Proverbs, xxxi. 17.

39. Dr. Samuel Johnson.

40. “A pale, delicate face, and clear eyes, indicative of consumption, are the fashionable desiderata at present for complexion.”—Dublin University Magazine.

42. Sir Egerton Brydges.

44. “In the human female, the period of puberty, or of commencing aptitude for procreation, is usually between the thirteenth and sixteenth years. It is generally thought to be somewhat earlier in warm climates than in cold, and in densely populated manufacturing towns than in thinly populated agricultural districts. The mental and bodily habits of the individual have also considerable influence upon the time of its occurrence; girls brought up in the midst of luxury or sensual indulgence undergoing this change earlier than those reared in hardihood and self-denial.”—Dr. Carpenter’s Human Physiology.

45. “Some curious facts come to light in the Scotch Registrar-General’s report in reference to prolific mothers. One mother, who was only eighteen, had four children; one, who was twenty-two, had seven children; and of two who were only thirty-four, one had thirteen and the other fourteen children; and, on the other hand, two women became mothers as late in life as at fifty-one, and four at fifty-two; and one mother was registered as having given birth to a child in the fifty-seventh year of her age.”

46. British Medical Journal, Nov. 21st, 1863.

47. It is very unusual, in this climate, for a girl to become a mother until she be seventeen or eighteen years of age. A case has just occurred, however (1864), where a girl became a mother before she reached her fourteenth year. In his last report to the Registrar-General, the registrar for Park district, Sheffield, says: “I have registered the birth of a child in my district this quarter, the age of the mother being only thirteen years and ten months. She was employed in a cotton mill in the neighborhood of Manchester.”

49. Exposition of the Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy.

50. “The catamenial discharge, as it issues from the uterus [womb], appears to be nearly or quite identical with ordinary blood; but in its passage through the vagina it becomes mixed with the acid mucus exuded from its walls, which usually deprives it of the power of coagulating. If the discharge should be profuse, however, a portion of its fibrin remains unaffected, and clots are formed.”—Dr. Carpenter’s Human Physiology.

51. Dr. David D. Davis was physician-accoucheur in attendance at the birth of her present Majesty.

52. With regard to the origin of the word enceinte, Dr. Montgomery, in his valuable Exposition of the Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy, observes: “Many a one who confesses, with a smile or a blush, that she is enceinte, would do well to remember the origin of the word she uses. It was the habit of the Roman ladies to wear a tight girdle or cincture round their waists; but when pregnancy occurred, they were required by law—at least that of opinion—to remove this restraint; and hence a woman so situated was said to be incincta, or unbound, and hence also the adoption of the term enceinte to signify a state of pregnancy.”

53. “William Hunter had such faith in this sign that he always asserted he could judge by it alone whether or not a woman was pregnant.”—Signs and Diseases of Pregnancy. (Dr. Tanner.)

55. This work is exclusively intended for the perusal of wives; I beg, however, to observe that there is one sign of pregnancy which I have not pointed out, but which to a medical man is very conclusive; I mean the sounds of the fœtal heart, indicated by the stethoscope. Moreover, there are other means besides the stethoscope known to a doctor, by which he can with certainty tell whether a woman be pregnant or otherwise, but which would be quite out of place to describe in a popular work of this kind.

56. The bidet may be procured of a cabinet-maker, the sitz-bath of a furnishing ironmonger.

59. Popular Science Review.

60. These pills and all medicines prescribed in this book ought to be prepared by a chemist.

61. The hot-water bag, or bottle as it is sometimes called, is composed of vulcanized india-rubber, and is made purposely to hold very hot water. The bag ought not to be more than half filled with water, as it will then better adapt itself to the shape of the bowels. The water must be hot, but not boiling hot; if it should be very hot, the bag ought to be wrapped in flannel.

62. Take four poppy-heads and four ounces of chamomile blows, and boil them in four pints of water for half an hour, to make the fomentation, which should then be strained, and made quite hot in a saucepan when required.

63. Waring’s Manual of Therapeutics.

64. Let the ointments be made by a druggist.

65. Which may be procured either of a medical man or of any respectable surgical-instrument-maker.

66. Domette is a mixture of flannel and cotton. One of good quality should be used for the purpose.

67. Ten grains of powdered alum to half an ounce of chloroform.

68. Camphor julep may be made by putting a few lumps of camphor in a wide-mouthed bottle of cold water; cork it up, and let it stand for a few days; then strain it, sweeten it with lump sugar, and it will be fit for use.

69. A hot-water bag is composed of vulcanized india-rubber, and is made purposely to hold very hot water—boiling water. It ought only to be half filled with water, in order that it may adapt itself to the surface of the stomach. The temperature of the water need only be hot, and not boiling hot. It is a most delightful stomach warmer and comforter, and should be in every house where there is a family. One great advantage of it is, that it is, in a few minutes, ready for use. It may be procured at any respectable india-rubber warehouse.

70. Dissolve half a teaspoonful of powdered alum in a quarter of a pint of tepid water, to make the injection.

71. Which may be procured either of a surgical-instrument-maker or of an india-rubber manufacturer. The best kind of india-rubber vaginal syringe is the one purposely made for the patient to use herself.

72. See pages 43, 124, and 172.

74. Which sitz-bath may be procured of any respectable tinman or furnishing ironmonger.

75. Tanner, On Signs and Diseases of Pregnancy.

76. I say usually, for the duration of gestation is very uncertain. Dr. Reid gives (in The Lancet of July 20th, 1850) an interesting table of the duration of pregnancy. The table comprises 500 cases; out of which numbers, nearly the half terminated in labor in the fortieth and forty-first weeks. The following is the order in which they occurred:

23	cases	in the	37th	week.
48	„	„	38th	„
81	„	„	39th	„
131	„	„	40th	„
112	„	„	41st	„
63	„	„	42d	„
28	„	„	43d	„
8	„	„	44th	„
6	„	„	45th	„

The above is merely a summary of Dr. Reid’s valuable table.

77. We are informed by Jourdan and other French writers that Fernel acted on the knowledge of this fact when consulted by Henry II. of France as to the best means of rendering his queen, Catherine de Medicis, fruitful. He advised the king to visit her only immediately after the cessation of the menstrual discharge, the adoption of which advice was attended with success, and the queen, after years of disappointment, gave birth to a son.—Dr. Montgomery.

78. On the Signs and Diseases of Pregnancy.

79. Braithwaite’s Retrospect. A Synopsis of Dr. Packman’s Paper on Impregnation, in The Lancet, July 18th, 1863.

80. Belforest. A Tale of English Country Life. By the author of Mary Powell. London: Richard Bentley.

81. Not Proven. London: Hurst & Blackett.

82. “He that goeth about as a tale-bearer revealeth secrets.”—Prov. xx 19.

83. The Rev. J. G. Wood’s Duties of the Hospital Chaplain, in the Churchman’s Family Magazine.

84. Higginson’s syringe may be procured either of Weiss & Son, Strand, London, or of any other respectable surgical-instrument-maker. There are other india-rubber apparatuses besides Higginson’s which will answer a similar purpose. Sometimes they are made with two separate and distinct india-rubber pipes, the one of which is to be used in the administration of an enema, and the other either for giving an injection up the vagina, or for washing out the vagina with warm water. The best quality of apparatus ought always to be chosen. It might be procured either of a surgical-instrument-maker or at an india-rubber warehouse. C. Mackintosh & Co.’s Patent Vaginal Syringe (No. 2 size) is a capital vaginal syringe; but it will only act as a vaginal, while Higginson’s and some others will act a double purpose—as an enema and as a vaginal syringe.

85. Pye Chavasse’s Advice to a Mother. Ninth edition.

86. A System of Midwifery. By E. Rigby, M.D.

87. “Adam’s children must work, Eve’s children must suffer.”—“On some Guesses at Truth,” in Good Words, June, 1862. Young, in his Night Thoughts, beautifully expresses the common lot of woman to suffer:

“’Tis the common lot;
In this shape, or in that, has fate entailed
The mother’s throes on all of woman born,
Not more the children than sure heirs of pain.”

88. “Through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s womb; my praise shall be always of thee.”—The Psalms of David, lxxi. 5.

89. Dr. David D. Davis used, in his valuable lectures, strongly to reprobate meddlesome midwifery: he justly observed that “accoucheurs were only life-guardsmen to women.” A life-guardsman, while on duty at the palace, does not interfere with every passer-by, but only removes those who obstruct the way.

90. Dr. George Smith, of Madras, communicated an interesting case of the kind to the Edinburgh Medical Journal (November, 1862).

91. “Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs.”—Isa. xxvi. 17.

92. A two-ounce pot of unsalted or prepared lard, as it is usually called, should, previously to the labor, be procured from a chemist.

93. And may be procured at any india-rubber warehouse or at a baby-linen establishment.

95. St. John, xvi. 21.

96. Dr. Kidd on Chloroform, in the Medical Press and Circular, March 14th, 1866.

97. Dr. Kidd, in Dublin Quarterly. Dr. Kidd is an authority on chloroform.

98. The Theory and Practice of Midwifery. By Fleetwood Churchill, M.D.

99. “Dr. Vose (of Liverpool) said, that once, when in the remote valleys of Westmoreland and Cumberland, he used to ask the people how they got on without medical aid, particularly in regard to midwifery cases. People wondered that he should ask. He found that they had no midwives even; when a woman begins her troubles, they told him, they give her warm beer; if she is worse, more warm beer; but if that fails, then ‘she maun dee.’ So they give stimulants from the first. One word in the paper read seemed to contain the gist of the matter; we must treat the patients according to ‘common sense.’”—Diet Suitable after Childbirth. British Medical Journal, December 12th, 1863.

100. As a rule, the “waters break” just before the head is born, then there is no fear of a membrane covering the mouth, as the head passes through the ruptured membrane. “In other instances, the membrane does not burst before the expulsion of the head of the fœtus [child] externally, which it covers, and in such cases the infant is said by nurses to be born with a caul, and this is advertised in the London newspapers in our day, and sold at a high price by midwives, as it is superstitiously supposed to prevent shipwreck.”—Ryan’s Manual of Midwifery.

102. See page 232, paragraph 554.

103. The female slipper may be procured either at any respectable earthenware warehouse, or of a surgical-instrument-maker.

104. “The female slipper,” and the French bed-pan and the bed-pan of the Liverpool Northern Hospital, may be procured either at any respectable earthenware warehouse or of a surgical-instrument-maker.

105. Boil two handfuls of marshmallows and two handfuls of chamomile blows in two quarts of water for a quarter of an hour, and strain.

106. Which may be obtained either of a surgical-instrument-maker or at an india-rubber warehouse.

107. There are few persons who know how to make beef-tea: let me tell you of a good way. Let the cook mince very fine—as fine as sausage-meat—one pound of the shoulder blade of beef, taking care that every particle of fat be removed; then let her put the meat either into a saucepan or into a digester with three pepper corns and a pint and a half of cold water; let it be put on the fire to boil; let it slowly boil for an hour, and then let it be strained; and you will have most delicious beef-tea, light and nourishing, grateful to the stomach and palate. When cold, carefully skim any remaining fat (if there be any) from it, and warm it up when wanted. It is always well, when practicable, to make beef-tea the day before it is wanted, in order to be able to skim it when quite cold. It may be served up with a finger or two of dry toast, and with salt to suit the taste. Sometimes a patient prefers the beef-tea without the pepper corns; when such be the case, let the pepper corns be omitted.

If you wish your beef-tea to be particularly strong and nourishing, and if you have any beef bones in the house, let them be broken up and slowly boiled in a digester for a couple of hours, or even longer, with the finely minced-up beef.

108. A knuckle of veal boiled in new milk makes a light and nourishing food for a delicate lying-in woman. Milk is an admirable article of food for the lying-in room.

109. Letter from Edward Crossman, Esq., in British Medical Journal, Nov. 19th, 1864.

110. Barley-water and new milk, in equal proportions, was Dr. Gooch’s favorite beverage for a lying-in woman. “After the fifth day,” he says, “the patient should be quite well, and your visits are merely for the purpose of watching her. Women now generally wish for wine or porter. I usually mix good barley-water with milk (equal parts), making barley gruel; and, presenting this beverage, I tell them, this is your wine and your porter too; it will relieve your thirst and sinking at the stomach, and will manufacture milk better than anything else.”

111. Erasmus Darwin.

112. The Nurse: a Poem.

113. Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children; the ninth edition. By Pye Henry Chavasse F.R.C.S.

114. From an admirable paper on Health of Body and Mind, in Good Words, Jan. 1st, 1866.

115. Good Words, October, 1861.

121. Carlyle’s Inaugural Address at his installation as Rector of the University of Edinburgh.

122. Either of which may be procured of any respectable surgical-instrument-maker.

123. For much valuable information on this subject, see A New and Rational Explanation of the Diseases peculiar to Infants and Mothers. By Thomas Ballard, M.D.

124. Two tablespoonfuls of olive oil, two tablespoonfuls of table salt, and a pint of warm oatmeal gruel.

125. Dr. William Parr On the Mortality of Children.

126. Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children; the ninth edition. By Pye Henry Chavasse, F.R.C.S.

127. Advice to a Mother on the Management of her Children the ninth edition. By Pye Henry Chavasse, F.R.C.S.

128. Pye Chavasse’s Advice to a Mother.

129. Romeo and Juliet.

130. Good Words, Dr. W. Lindsay Alexander, March, 1861.

131. Woman’s Mission.

133. A nursery-basin (Wedgwood’s make is considered the best) holding either six or eight quarts of water, and which will be sufficiently large to hold the whole body of the child. The basin is generally fitted into a wooden frame, which will raise it to a convenient height for the washing of the baby.

134. Sir Charles Locock strongly recommends that an infant should be washed in a tub from the very commencement. He says: “All those that I superintend begin with a tub.”—Letter to the Author.

135. Mrs. Baines (who has written so much and so well on the Management of Children), in a Letter to the Author, recommends flannel to be used in the first washing of an infant, which flannel ought afterward to be burned; and that the sponge should be only used to complete the process, to clear off what the flannel had already loosened. She also recommends that every child should have his own sponge, each of which should have a particular distinguishing mark upon it, as she considers the promiscuous use of the same sponge to be a frequent cause of ophthalmia (inflammation of the eyes). The sponges cannot be kept too clean.