138. Communicated by Sir Charles Locock to the Author.
139. “The Princess of Wales might have been seen on Thursday taking an airing, in a brougham in Hyde Park, with her baby—the future King of England—on her lap, without a nurse, and accompanied only by Mrs. Bruce. The Princess seems a very pattern of mothers, and it is whispered among the ladies of the Court that every evening the mother of this young gentleman may be seen in a flannel dress, in order that she may properly wash and put on baby’s night-clothes and see him safely in bed. It is a pretty subject for a picture.”—Pall Mall Gazette.
140. Communicated by Sir Charles Locock to the Author.
141. “Tous-les-mois” is the starch obtained from the tuberous roots of various species of canna; and is imported from the West Indies. It is very similar to arrow-root. I suppose it is called “tous-les-mois,” as it is good to be eaten all the year round.
142. If there is any difficulty in obtaining prepared oatmeal, Robertson’s Patent Groats will answer equally as well.
143. British Medical Journal, Dec. 18, 1858.
144. The Cook’s Guide. By C. E. Francatelli.
145. I consider it to be of immense importance to the infant, that the milk be had from ONE cow. A writer in the Medical Times and Gazette, speaking on this subject, makes the following sensible remarks: “I do not know if a practice common among French ladies, when they do not nurse, has obtained the attention among ourselves which it seems to me to deserve. When the infant is to be fed with cow milk, that from various cows is submitted to examination by the medical man, and if possible, tried on some child, and when the milk of any cow has been chosen, no other milk is ever suffered to enter the child’s lips, for a French lady would as soon offer to her infant’s mouth the breasts of half a dozen wet-nurses in the day, as mix together the milk of various cows, which must differ even as the animals themselves, in its constituent qualities. Great attention is also paid to the pasture, or other food of the cow thus appropriated.”—December 29, 1860.
146. For further reasons why artificial food is not desirable at an early period of infancy, see answer to 35th question, p. 1043.
147. The Nurse, a Poem. Translated from the Italian of Luigi Tansillo. By William Roscoe.
148. Liebig, the great chemist, asserts that a small quantity of table salt to the food is essential to the health of children.
149. It now and then happens that if the milk be not boiled, the motions of an infant are offensive; when such is the case let the milk be boiled, but not otherwise.
150. “It should be thin, and of a bluish-white color, sweet to the taste, and when allowed to stand should throw up a considerable quantity of cream.”—Maunsell and Evenson on the Diseases of Children.
151. Sir Charles Locock considers that a woman who menstruates during lactation is objectionable as a wet-nurse, and “that as a mother with her first child is more liable to that objection, that a second or third child’s mother is more eligible than a first.”—Letter to the Author.
152. “The child is poisoned.”
“Poisoned! by whom?”
“By you. You have been fretting.”
“Nay, indeed, mother. How can I help fretting?”
“Don’t tell me, Margaret. A nursing mother has no business to fret. She must turn her mind away from her grief to the comfort that lies in her lap. Know you not that the child pines if the mother vexes herself?”—The Cloister and the Hearth. By Charles Reade.
153. The previous boiling of the milk will prevent the warmth of the bed turning the milk sour, which it would otherwise do.
154. For the first three or four months never, if you can possibly avoid it, give artificial food to an infant who is sucking. There is nothing, in the generality of cases, that agrees, for the first few months, like the mother’s milk alone.
155. Communicated by Sir Charles Locock to the author.
156. Dendy. Lancet, October 25, 1851.
157. Dr. George Gregory.
158. Sir Charles Locock, in a Letter to the Author.
159. For the precautions to be used in putting a child into a warm bath, see the answer to question on “Warm Baths.”
160. No family, where there are young children, should be without Fahrenheit’s thermometer.
161. Ingoldsby Legends.
162. The young of animals seldom suffer from cutting their teeth—and what is the reason? Because they live in the open air and take plenty of exercise, while children are frequently cooped up in close rooms and are not allowed the free use of their limbs. The value of fresh air is well exemplified in the Registrar-General’s Report for 1843: he says that in 1,000,000 deaths from all diseases, 616 occur in the town from teething, while 120 only take place in the country from the same cause.
163. See answer to Question 63.
164. “‘Soothing Syrup.’ Some of them probably contain opiates, but a perfectly safe and useful one is a little nitrate of potassa in syrup of roses—one scruple to half an ounce.”—Communicated by Sir Charles Locock to the Author.
165. “I should put this in capitals, it is so important and so often mistaken.”—C. Locock.
166. I have somewhere read that if a cage, containing a canary, be suspended at night within a bed where a person is sleeping, and the curtains be drawn closely around, that the bird will, in the morning, in all probability be found dead!
167. The Nurse, a Poem.
168. It may be interesting to a mother to know the average weight of new-born infants. There is a paper on the subject in the Medical Circular (April 10, 1861), and which has been abridged in Braithwaite’s Retrospect of Medicine (July and December, 1861). The following are extracts: “Dr. E. von Siebold presents a table of the weights of 3000 infants (1586 male and 1414 female), weighed immediately after birth. From this table (for which we have not space) it results that by far the greater number of the children (2215) weighed between 6 and 8 lbs. From 5¾ to 6 lbs. the number rose from 99 to 268; and from 8 to 8¼ lbs. they fell from 226 to 67, and never rose again at any weight to 100. From 8¾ to 9½ lbs. they sank from 61 to 8, rising, however, at 9½ lbs to 21. Only six weighed 10 lbs., one 10¾ lbs., and two 11 lbs. The author has never but once met with a child weighing 11¾ lbs. The most frequent weight in the 3000 was 7 lbs., numbering 426. It is a remarkable fact, that until the weight of 7 lbs. the female infants exceeded the males in number, the latter thenceforward predominating.... From these statements, and those of various other authors here quoted, the conclusion may be drawn that the normal weight of a mature new-born infant is not less than 6 nor more than 8 lbs., the average weight being 6½ or 7 lbs., the smaller number referring to female and the higher to male infants.”
169. Hints on Household Management. By Mrs. C. L. Balfour Partridge, London.
170. In a Letter to the Author.
171. Letter to the Author.
173. Sir Charles Locock, in a Letter to the Author.
174.
Make a Mixture. One or two teaspoonfuls (according to the age of the child) to be taken every four hours, until relief be obtained—first shaking the bottle.
175. See Symptoms and Treatment of Dysentery.
177. Let the mixture be made by a chemist.
178. Communicated by Sir Charles Locock to the Author.
179. Let this mixture, or any other medicine I may prescribe, be always made by a respectable chemist.
180. My friend, the late Dr. Baly, who had made dysentery his particular study, considered the combination of opium and castor oil very valuable in dysentery.
181. See the Treatment of Dysentery.
182. Tennyson.
183. Sir Charles Locock, in a Letter to the Author.
185. The Lancet, April 25, 1857.
186. The Foot and its Covering. By James Dowie. London, 1861.
187. The Psalms of David, cxliv. 12.
188. How is milk, in the making of cheese, converted into curds? By rennet. What is rennet? The juice of a calf’s maw or stomach. The moment the milk enters the human maw or stomach, the juice of the stomach converts it into curds—into solid food, just as readily as when it enters a calf’s maw or stomach, and much more readily than by rennet, as the fresh juice is stronger than the stale. An ignorant mother often complains that because, when her child is sick, the milk curdles, that it is a proof that it does not agree with him! If, at those times, it did not curdle, it would, indeed, prove that his stomach was in a wretchedly weak state; she would, then, have abundant cause to be anxious.
189. The Times, September 19, 1864.
190. The Lancet, December 18, 1858.
191. Ibid.
192. Although caraway seeds whole are unwholesome, yet caraway-tea, made as recommended at page 1097, is an excellent remedy to disperse wind.
193. Christian’s Mistake. By the author of “John Halifax Gentlemen.”
194. “Pure air and water are practically the two great elements of health.”—The Times.
195. The Times.
196. “Two little girls died in London last week from sucking some lucifer matches.”—The Birmingham Daily Gazette, June 21, 1864.
197. The Times, October 5, 1863.
198. Shakspeare.
199. A Woman’s Thoughts about Women.
200. Tales of a Wayside Inn. By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
201. Douglas Jerrold
202. Tennyson.
203. Sir Walter Scott.
204. “But we were gentle among you, even as a woman cherisheth her children.”—I. Thess. ii. 7.
205. Household Verses on Health and Happiness. London: Jarrold & Sons. I should advise every mother to purchase a copy of this delightful little book. Unlike a great deal of poetry, it is both useful and truthful.
206. Life’s Problems. London: Bell & Dalby.
207. The Leadbeater Papers. London: Bell & Dalby.
208. Romans, xii. 10.
209. A Woman’s Thoughts about Women.
210. The Protoplast.
211. Wordsworth.
212. Goldsmith.
213. From an excellent article About Toys, by J. Hamilton Fyfe, in Good Words for December, 1862, which I should strongly advise a mother to read.
214. The Saturday Review, December 13, 1862.
215. “According to Aristotle, more care should be taken of the body than of the mind for the first seven years; strict attention to diet be enforced, etc.... The eye and ear of the child be most watchfully and severely guarded against contamination of every kind, and unrestrained communication with servants be strictly prevented. Even his amusements should be under due regulation, and rendered as interesting and intellectual as possible.”—The Rev. John Williams, in his Life and Actions of Alexander the Great.
216. Tennyson.
217. Sir Charles Locock in a Letter to the Author.
218. Geo. M’Donald, M.A.
219. Medical Times and Gazette.
220. In case of a sudden attack of croup, instantly give a teaspoonful of ipecacuanha wine, and repeat it every five minutes until free vomiting be excited.
221. See “Warm baths”—directions and precautions to be observed.
222. Essays and Notes. Churchill.
223. If you put your finger into the mouth of a child laboring under inflammation of the lungs, it is like putting your finger into a hot apple-pie, the heat is so great.
225. Diphtheria: by Ernest Hart. A valuable pamphlet on the subject. Dr. Wade, of Birmingham, has also written an interesting and useful monograph on diphtheria. I am indebted to the above authors for much valuable information.
226. “Now all my carefully conducted inquiries induce me to believe that the disease comes from drain-poison. All the cases into which I could fully inquire have brought conviction to my mind that there is a direct law of sequence in some peculiar conditions of atmosphere between diphtheria and bad drainage; and if this be proved by subsequent investigations, we may be able to prevent a disease which, in too many cases, our known remedies cannot cure.”—W. Carr, Esq., Blackheath. British Medical Journal, Dec. 7, 1861.
227. Let the infusion of roses be made merely with the rose-leaves and boiling water.
230. Edinburgh Medical Journal.
231. On the 4th of March, 1856, I had the honor to read a Paper on the Treatment of Scarlet Fever before the members of Queen’s College Medico-Chirurgical Society, Birmingham,—which Paper was afterward published in the Association Journal (March 15, 1856); and in Braithwaite’s Retrospect of Medicine (January-June, 1856); and in Ranking’s Half-Yearly Abstract of the Medical Sciences (July-December, 1856); besides in other publications. Moreover, the Paper was translated into German, and published in Canstatt’s Jahresbericht, iv. 456, 1859.
232. In the Times of September 4, 1863, is the following, copied from the Bridgewater Mercury:
“Gross Superstition.—In one of the streets of Taunton there resides a man and his wife who have the care of a child. This child was attacked with scarlatina, and to all appearance death was inevitable. A jury of matrons was, as it were, impaneled, and, to prevent the child ‘dying hard,’ all the doors in the house, all the drawers, all the boxes, all the cupboards were thrown wide open, the keys taken out, and the body of the child placed under a beam, whereby a sure, certain, and easy passage into eternity could be secured. Watchers held their vigils throughout the weary night, and in the morning the child, to the surprise of all, did not die, and is now gradually recovering.”
These old women—this jury of matrons—stumbled on the right remedy, “all the doors in the house ... were thrown wide open,” and thus they thoroughly ventilated the apartment. What was the consequence? The child who, just before the opening of the doors, had all the appearances “that death was inevitable,” as soon as fresh air was let in, showed symptoms of recovery, “and in the morning the child, to the surprise of all, did not die, and is now gradually recovering.” There is nothing wonderful—there is nothing surprising to my mind—in all this. Ventilation—thorough ventilation—is the grand remedy for scarlatina! Oh, that there were in scarlet fever cases a good many such old women’s—such a “jury of matrons”—remedies! We should not then be horrified, as we now are, at the fearful records of death, which the Returns of the Registrar-General disclose!
234. On the importance, the vital importance, of the wearing of flannel next to the skin, see Flannel Waistcoats.
235. If any of my medical brethren should do me the honor to read these pages, let me entreat them to try my plan of treating scarlet fever, as my success has been great. I have given full and minute particulars, in order that they and mothers (if mothers cannot obtain medical advice) may give my plan a fair and impartial trial. My only stipulations are that they must begin with my treatment, and not mix any other with it, and carry out my plan to the very letter. I then, with God’s blessing, shall not fear the result; but shall rejoice that I have been of some little service in my generation.
236. “It would be well if we were to use whitewash in many cases where great cleanness of surface cannot be obtained. We remove in this way, by an easy method, much of the dullness and still more of the unwholesomeness of dirt.”—Dr. Angus Smith, in Good Words, April, 1861.
237. Quarterly Report of the Board of Health upon Sickness in the Metropolis.
238. Vesicles. Small elevations of the cuticle, covering a fluid which is generally clear and colorless at first, but becomes afterward whitish and opaque, or pearly.—Watson.
242. The above extract from Tennyson is, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful pieces of poetry in the English language. It is a perfect gem, and a volume in itself, so truthful, so exquisite, so full of the most valuable reflections: for instance—(1) “The little rift within the lute,”—the little tubercle within the lung, “that by-and-by will make the music mute, and ever widening slowly silence all,” and the patient eventually dies of consumption. (2) The little rent—the little rift of a very minute vessel in the brain, produces an attack of apoplexy, and the patient dies. (3) Each and all of us, in one form or another, sooner or later will have “the little rift within the lute.” But why give more illustrations? a little reflection will bring numerous examples to my fair reader’s memory.
243. Four poppy-heads and four ounces of chamomile blows to be boiled in four pints of water for half an hour, and then strained to make the decoction.
244. Sir Charles Locock, in a Letter to the Author.
245. Infusion of senna may be procured of any respectable druggist. It will take about one or two tablespoonfuls, or even more, of the infusion (according to the age of the child and the obstinacy of the bowels), to act as an aperient. Of course you yourself will be able, from time to time, as the need arises, to add the milk and the sugar, and thus to make it palatable. It ought to be given warm, so as the more to resemble tea.
246. A Manual of Practical Therapeutics. By Edward John Waring, F.R.C.S. London: John Churchill and Sons.
247. One part of bran to three parts of flour, mixed together and made into bread.
249. An enema apparatus is an important requisite in every nursery; it may be procured of any respectable surgical-instrument-maker. The india-rubber enema bottle is, for a child’s use, a great improvement on the old syringe, as it is not so likely to get out of order, and, moreover, is more easily used.
250. Blackwood, December, 1861.
251. If any of my medical brethren should perchance read these Conversations, I respectfully and earnestly recommend them to take more pains in making medicines for children pleasant and palatable. I am convinced that, in the generality of instances, provided a little more care and thought were bestowed on the subject, it may be done; and what an amount of both trouble and annoyance it would save! It is really painful to witness the struggles and cries of a child when nauseous medicine is to be given; the passion and the excitement often do more harm than the medicine does good.
252. George M‘Donald, M.A.
253. Nurses at these times ought to wear slippers, and not shoes.
254. Household Verses on Health and Happiness. London: Jarrold & Sons. A most delightful little volume.
255. Which fine-tooth comb ought not to be used at any other time except for the purpose of examination, as the constant use of a fine-tooth comb would scratch the scalp, and would encourage a quantity of scurf to accumulate.
256. Where milk does not agree, it may generally be made to do so by the addition of one part of lime-water to seven parts of new milk. Moreover, the lime will be of service in hardening his bones; and in these cases, the bones require hardening.
257. Which may be procured at any respectable india-rubber warehouse.
258.
Mix for a Liniment. For an adult, four drachms of the former, and eight of the latter, may be used. If the child be young, or if the skin be very tender, the camphorated oil may be used without the turpentine.
259. Wilson, on Healthy Skin.
260. Rain water ought always to be used in the washing of a child; pump-water is likely to chap the skin, and to make it both rough and irritable.
261. Sometimes, if the child’s skin be very irritable, the glycerin requires diluting with water—say, two ounces of glycerin to be mixed in a bottle with four ounces of spring water—the bottle to be well shaken just before using it.
262. One frequent, if not the most frequent, cause of tape-worm is the eating of pork, more especially if it be underdone. Underdone pork is the most unwholesome food that can be eaten, and is the most frequent cause of tape-worm known. Underdone beef also gives tape-worm; let the meat, therefore, be well and properly cooked. These facts ought to be borne in mind, as prevention is always better than cure.
263. The Grocer.
264. Shakspeare.
265. Tennyson.
266. Every house where there are children ought to have one of these india-rubber hot water bottles. It may be procured at any respectable vulcanized india-rubber warehouse.
267. South’s Household Surgery.
268. “It has been computed that upwards of 1000 children are annually burned to death by accident in England.”
269. The cotton wool here recommended is that purposely made for surgeons, and is of a superior quality to that in general use.