Advice to a Wife and Mother

Part III Boyhood and Girlhood

’Tis with him e’en standing water,
Between boy and man.
          Shakspeare.

Standing with reluctant feet
Where the brook and river meet,
Womanhood and childhood fleet!
          Longfellow.

Ablution, Etc.

302. Have you any remarks to make on the Ablution of boys and girls?

How is it that a mother thinks it absolutely necessary (which it really is) that her babe’s whole body should every morning be washed; and yet who does not deem it needful that her girl or boy of twelve years old, should go through the process of daily and thorough ablution? If the one case be necessary, sure I am that the other is equally if not more needful.

Thorough ablution of the body every morning at least is essential to health. I maintain that no one can be in the enjoyment of perfect health who does not keep his skin—the whole of his skin—clean. In the absence of cleanliness, a pellicle forms on the skin which engenders disease. Moreover, a person who does not keep his skin clean is more susceptible of contracting contagious disease, such as small-pox, typhus fever, cholera, diphtheria, scarlet fever, etc.

Thorough ablution of the body is a grand requisite of health. I maintain that no one can be perfectly healthy unless he thoroughly wash his body—the whole of his body; if filth accumulate, which, if not washed off, it is sure to do, disease must, as a matter of course, follow. Besides, ablution is a delightful process; it makes one feel fresh and sweet, and young and healthy; it makes the young look handsome and the old look young! Thorough ablution might truly be said both to renovate and to rejuvenize! A scrupulously clean skin is one of the grand distinctive characteristics both of a lady and of a gentleman.

Dirty people are not only a nuisance to themselves, but to all around; they are not only a nuisance, but a danger, as their dirty bodies are apt to carry from place to place contagious diseases.

It is important that parts that are covered should be kept cleaner than parts exposed to the air, as dirt is more apt to fester in dark places; besides, parts exposed to the air have the advantage of the air’s sweetening properties; air acts as a bath, and purifies the skin amazingly.

It is desirable to commence a complete system of washing early in life, as then it becomes a second nature, and cannot afterward be dispensed with. One accustomed to the luxury of his morning ablution would feel most uncomfortable if anything prevented him from taking it; he would as soon think of dispensing with his breakfast as with his bath.

Every boy, every girl, and every adult ought each to have either a room or a dressing-room to himself or to herself, in order that he or she might strip to the skin and thoroughly wash themselves; no one can wash properly and effectually without doing so.

Now, for the paraphernalia required for the process: (1) A large nursery-basin, one that will hold six or eight quarts of water (Wedgwood’s make being considered the best); (2) A piece of coarse flannel, a yard long and half a yard wide; (3) A large sponge; (4) A tablet either of the best yellow or of curd soap; (5) Two towels, one being a diaper and the other a Turkish rubber.

Now, as to the manner of performing ablution. You ought to fill the basin three parts full with rain water; then, having well soaped and cleansed your hands, re-soap them, dip your head and face into the water, then with the soaped hands well rub and wash your head, face, neck, chest, and armpits; having done which, take the wetted sponge, and go over all the parts previously traveled over by the soaped hands; then fold the flannel as you would a neckerchief, and dip it in the water, then throw it, as you would a skipping-rope, over your shoulders, and move it a few times from right to left and from left to right, and up and down, and then across the back and loins; having done which, dip the sponge in the water, and holding your head under the water, let the water stream from the sponge a time or two over your head, neck, and face. Dip your head and face in the water, then put your hands and arms (as far as they will go) into the water, holding them there while you can count thirty. Having reduced the quantity of water to a third of a basinful, place the basin on the floor, and sit (while you can count fifty) in the water; then put one foot at a time in the water, and quickly rub, with soaped hands, up and down your leg, over the foot, and pass your thumb between each toe (this latter procedure tends to keep away soft corns); then take the sponge, filled with water, and squeeze it over your leg and foot, from the knee downward,—then serve your other leg and foot in the same way. By adopting the above plan, the whole of the body will, every morning, be thoroughly washed.

A little warm water might at first, and during the winter time, be added, to take off the chill; but the sooner quite cold water is used the better. The body ought to be quickly dried (taking care to wipe between each toe), first with the diaper, and then with the Turkish rubber. In drying your back and loins, you ought to throw, as you would a skipping-rope, the Turkish rubber over your shoulders, and move it a few times from side to side, until the parts be dry.

Although the above description is necessarily prolix, the washing itself ought to be very expeditiously performed; there should be no dawdling over it, otherwise the body will become chilled, and harm instead of good will be the result. If due dispatch be used, the whole of the body might, according to the above method, be thoroughly washed and dried in the space of ten minutes.

A boy ought to wash his head, as above directed, every morning, a girl, who has much hair, once a week, with soap and water, with flannel and sponge. The hair, if not frequently washed, is very dirty, and nothing is more repulsive than a dirty head!

It might be said, “Why do you go into particulars? why dwell so much upon minutiæ? Every one, without being told, knows how to wash himself!” I reply, “That very few people do know how to wash themselves properly; it is a misfortune they do not—they would be both much healthier and happier if they did!”

303. Have you any remarks to make on boys and girls learning to swim?

Let me strongly urge you to let your sons and daughters be early taught to swim. Swimming is a glorious exercise—one of the best that can be taken; it expands the chest; it promotes digestion; it develops the muscles, and brings into action some muscles that in any other form of exercise are but seldom brought into play; it strengthens and braces the whole frame, and thus makes the swimmer resist the liability of catching colds; it gives both boys and girls courage, energy, and self-reliance,—splendid qualities in this rough world of ours. Swimming is oftentimes the means of saving human life; this of itself would be a great recommendation of its value. It is a delightful amusement; to breast the waves is as exhilarating to the spirits as clearing on horseback a five-barred gate.

The art of learning to swim is quite as necessary to be learned by a girl as by a boy; the former has similar muscles, lungs, and other organs to develop as the latter. It is very desirable that in large towns swimming-baths for ladies should be instituted.

Swimming ought, then, to be a part and parcel of the education of every boy and of every girl.

Swimming does not always agree. This sometimes arises from a person being quite cold before he plunges into the water. Many people have an idea that they ought to go into the water while their bodies are in a cool state. Now this is a mistaken notion, and is likely to produce dangerous consequences. The skin ought to be comfortably warm, neither very hot nor very cold, and then the bather will receive every advantage that cold bathing can produce. If he go into the bath while the body is cold, the blood becomes chilled, and is driven to internal parts, and thus mischief is frequently produced.

A boy, after using cold bathing, ought, if it agree with him, to experience a pleasing glow over the whole surface of his body, his spirits and appetite should be increased, and he ought to feel stronger; but if it disagree with him, a chilliness and coldness, a lassitude and a depression of spirits, will be the result; the face will be pale and the features will be pinched, and, in some instances, the lips and the nails will become blue; all these are signs that cold bathing is injurious, and, therefore, that it ought on no account to be persevered in, unless these symptoms have hitherto proceeded from his going into the bath while he was quite cold. He may, previously to entering the bath, warm himself by walking briskly for a few minutes. Where cold sea water bathing does not agree, warm sea bathing should be substituted.

304. Which do you prefer—sea bathing or fresh water bathing?

Sea bathing. Sea bathing is incomparably superior to fresh water bathing; the salt water is far more refreshing and invigorating; the battling with the waves is more exciting; the sea breezes, blowing on the nude body, breathes (for the skin is a breathing apparatus) health and strength into the frame, and comeliness into the face; the sea water and the sea breezes are splendid cosmetics; the salt water is one of the finest applications, both for strengthening the roots and brightening the color of the hair, provided grease and pomatum have not been previously used.

305. Have you any directions to give as to the time and the seasons, and the best mode of sea bathing?

Summer and autumn are the best seasons of the year for cold sea bathing—August and September being the best months. To prepare the skin for the cold sea bathing, it would be well, before taking a dip in the sea, to have on the previous day a warm salt-water bath. It is injurious, and even dangerous, to bathe immediately after a full meal; the best time to bathe is about two hours after breakfast—that is to say, at about eleven or twelve o’clock in the forenoon. The bather, as soon as he enters the water, ought instantly to wet his head; this may be done either by his jumping at once from the machine into the water, or, if he have not the courage to do so, by plunging his head without loss of time completely under the water. He should remain in the water about a quarter of an hour, but never longer than half an hour.

Many bathers by remaining a long time in the water do themselves great injury. If sea bathing be found to be invigorating—and how often to the delicate it has proved to be truly magical—a patient may bathe once every day, but on no account oftener. If he be not strong, he had better, at first, bathe only every other day, or even only twice a week.

The bather, after leaving the machine, ought, for half an hour, to take a brisk walk in order to promote a reaction, and thus to cause a free circulation of the blood.

306. Do you think a tepid276 bath may be more safely used?

A tepid bath may be taken at almost any time; and a bather may remain longer in one, with safety, than in a cold bath.

307. Do you approve of warm bathing?

A warm bath277 may, with advantage, be occasionally used—say once a week. A warm bath cleanses the skin more effectually than either a cold or a tepid bath; but, as it is more relaxing, ought not to be employed so often as either of them. A person should not continue longer than ten minutes in a warm bath. Once a week, as a rule, is quite often enough for a warm bath; and it would be an excellent plan if every boy and girl and adult would make a practice of having one regularly every week, unless any special reason should arise to forbid its use.

308. But does not warm bathing, by relaxing the pores of the skin, cause a person to catch cold if he expose himself to the air immediately afterward?

There is, on this point, a great deal of misconception and unnecessary fear. A person, immediately after using a warm bath, should take proper precautions—that is to say, he must not expose himself to draughts, neither ought he to wash himself in cold water, nor should he, immediately after taking one, drink cold water. But he may follow his usual exercise or employment, provided the weather be fine, and the wind be neither in the east nor the northeast.

Every house of any pretension ought to have a bath-room. Nothing would be more conducive to health than regular systematic bathing. A hot and cold bath, a sitz-bath and a shower-bath—each and all in their turn—are grand requisites to preserve and procure health. If the house cannot boast of a bath-room, then the Corporation baths (which nearly every large town possesses) ought to be liberally patronized.

309. What is the best application for the hair?

A sponge and cold water, and two good hair-brushes. Avoid grease, pomatum, bandoline, and all abominations of that kind. There is a natural oil of the hair, which is far superior to either Rowland’s Macassar oil or any other oil! The best scent for the hair is an occasional dressing of soap and water; the best beautifier of the hair is a downright thorough good brushing with two good hair-brushes! Again, I say, avoid grease of all kinds to the hair. “And as for women’s hair, don’t plaster it with scented and sour grease, or with any grease; it has an oil of its own. And don’t tie up your hair tight, and make it like a cap of iron over your skull. And why are your ears covered? You hear all the worse, and they are not the cleaner. Besides, the ear is beautiful in itself, and plays its own part in the concert of the features.”278

If the hair cannot, without some application, be kept tidy, then a little of the best sweet oil might, by means of an old tooth-brush, be used to smooth it; sweet oil is, for the purpose, one of the most simple and harmless of dressings; but, as I said before, the hair’s own natural oil cannot be equaled, far less surpassed!

If the hair fall off, castor oil, scented with a few drops of essence of bergamot and oil of lavender, is a good remedy to prevent its doing so; a little of it ought, night and morning, to be well rubbed into the roots of the hair. Cocoanut oil is another excellent application for the falling off of the hair.

Clothing

310. Do you approve of a boy wearing flannel next the skin?

England is so variable a climate, and the changes from heat to cold, and from dryness to moisture of the atmosphere, are so sudden, that some means are required to guard against their effects. Flannel, as it is a bad conductor of heat, prevents the sudden changes from affecting the body, and thus is a great preservative against cold.

Flannel is as necessary in the summer as in the winter time; indeed, we are more likely both to sit and to stand in draughts in the summer than in the winter; and thus we are more liable to become chilled and to catch cold.

Woolen shirts are now much worn; they are very comfortable and beneficial to health. Moreover, they simplify the dress, as they supersede the necessity of wearing either both flannel and linen, or flannel and calico shirts.

311. Flannel sometimes produces great irritation of the skin; what ought to be done to prevent it?

Have a moderately fine flannel, and persevere in its use; the skin in a few days will bear it comfortably. The Angola and wove-silk waistcoats have been recommended as substitutes, but there is nothing equal to the old-fashioned Welsh flannel.

312. If a boy have delicate lungs, do you approve of his wearing a prepared hare-skin over the chest?

I do not. The chest may be kept too warm as well as too cold. The hare-skin heats the chest too much, and thereby promotes a violent perspiration; which, by his going into the cold air, may become suddenly checked, and may thus produce mischief. If the chest be delicate, there is nothing like flannel to ward off colds.

313. After an attack of Rheumatic Fever, what extra clothing do you advise?

In the case of a boy, or a girl, just recovering from a severe attack of rheumatic fever, flannel next the skin ought always to be worn—flannel drawers as well as a flannel vest.

314. Have you any remarks to make on boys’ waistcoats?

Fashion in this, as in most other instances, is at direct variance with common sense. It would seem that fashion was intended to make work for the doctor, and to swell the bills of mortality! It might be asked, what part of the chest, in particular, ought to be kept warm? The upper part needs it most. It is in the upper part of the lungs that tubercles (consumption) usually first make their appearance; and is it not preposterous to have such parts, in particular, kept cool? Double-breasted waistcoats cannot be too strongly recommended for delicate youths, and for all men who have weak chests.

315. Have you any directions to give respecting the shoes and the stockings?

The shoes for winter should be moderately thick and waterproof. If boys and girls be delicate, they ought to have double soles to their shoes, with a piece of bladder between each sole, or the inner sole may be made of cork; either of the above plans will make the soles of boots and shoes completely waterproof. In wet or dirty weather, india-rubber overshoes are useful, as they keep the upper as well as the under leathers perfectly dry.

The socks or stockings, for winter, ought to be either lamb’s-wool or worsted; it is absurd to wear cotton socks or stockings all the year round. I should advise a boy to wear socks, not stockings; as he will then be able to dispense with garters. Garters, as I have remarked in a previous Conversation, are injurious—they not only interfere with the circulation of the blood, but also, by pressure, injure the bones, and thus the shape of the legs.

Boys and girls cannot be too particular in keeping their feet warm and dry, as cold wet feet are one of the most frequent exciting causes of bronchitis, of sore throats, and of consumption.

316. When should a girl begin to wear stays?

She ought never to wear them.

317. Do not stays strengthen the body?

No; on the contrary, they weaken it. (1) They weaken the muscles. The pressure upon them causes them to waste; so that, in the end, a girl cannot do without them, as the stays are then obliged to perform the duty of the wasted muscles. (2) They weaken the lungs by interfering with their functions. Every inspiration is accompanied by a movement of the ribs. If this movement be impeded, the functions of the lungs are impeded likewise; and, consequently, disease is likely to follow; and either difficulty of breathing, or cough, or consumption, may ensue. (3) They weaken the heart’s action, and thus frequently produce palpitation, and, perhaps, eventually organic or incurable disease of the heart. (4) They weaken the digestion, by pushing down the stomach and the liver, and by compressing the latter; and thus induce indigestion, flatulence, and liver disease.279 (5) They weaken the bowels, by impeding their proper peristaltic (spiral) motion, and thus might produce either constipation or a rupture. Is it not presumptuous to imagine that man can improve upon God’s works; and that if more support had been required the Almighty would not have given it!

“God never made his work for man to mend.”280

318. Have you any remarks to make on female dress?

There is a perfect disregard of health in everything appertaining to fashion. Parts that ought to be kept warm, remain unclothed: the upper portion of the chest, most prone to tubercles (consumption), is completely exposed; the feet, great inlets to cold, are covered with thin stockings, and with shoes as thin as paper. Parts that should have full play are cramped and hampered; the chest is cribbed in with stays, the feet with tight shoes,—hence causing deformity, and preventing a free circulation of blood. The mind, that ought to be calm and unruffled, is kept in a constant state of excitement by balls, and concerts, and plays. Mind and body sympathize with each other, and disease is the consequence. Night is turned into day; and a delicate girl leaves the heated ball-room, decked out in her airy finery, to breathe the damp and cold air of night. She goes to bed, but, for the first few hours, she is too much excited to sleep; toward morning, when the air is pure and invigorating, and, when to breathe it, would be to inhale health and life, she falls into a feverish slumber, and wakes not until noonday. Oh, that a mother should be so blinded and so infatuated!

319. Have you any observations to make on a girl wearing a green dress?

It is injurious to wear a green dress, if the color have been imparted to it by means of Scheele’s green, which is arsenite of copper—a deadly poison. I have known the arsenic to fly off from a green dress in the form of powder, and to produce, in consequence, ill health. Gas-light green is a lovely green, and free from all danger, and is fortunately superseding the Scheele’s green both in dresses and in worsted work. I should advise my fair reader, when she selects green as her color, always to choose the gas-light green, and to wear and to use for worsted work no other green besides.

Diet

320. Which is the most wholesome, coffee or tea, where milk does not agree, for a youth’s breakfast?

Coffee, provided it be made properly, and provided the boy or the girl take a great deal of out-door exercise; if a youth be much confined within doors, black tea is preferable to coffee. The usual practice of making coffee is to boil it, to get out the strength! But the fact is, the process of boiling boils the strength away; it drives off that aromatic, grateful principle, so wholesome to the stomach, and so exhilarating to the spirits; and, in lieu of which, extracts its dregs and impurities, which are both heavy and difficult of digestion. The coffee ought, if practicable, to be freshly ground every morning, in order that you may be quite sure that it be perfectly genuine, and that none of the aroma of the coffee has flown off from long exposure to the atmosphere. If a youth’s bowels be inclined to be costive, coffee is preferable to tea for breakfast, as coffee tends to keep the bowels regular. Fresh milk ought always to be added to the coffee in the proportion of half coffee and half new milk. If coffee does not agree, then black tea should be substituted, which ought to be taken with plenty of fresh milk in it. Milk may be frequently given in tea, when it otherwise would disagree.

When a youth be delicate, it is an excellent plan to give him every morning before he leaves his bed, a tumblerful of new milk. The draught of milk, of course, is not in any way to interfere with his regular breakfast.

321. Do you approve of a boy eating meat with his breakfast?

This will depend upon the exercise he uses. If he have had a good walk or run before breakfast, or if he intend, after breakfast, to take plenty of athletic out-door exercise, meat, or a rasher or two of bacon, may, with advantage be eaten, but not otherwise.

322. What is the best dinner for a youth?

Fresh mutton or beef, a variety of vegetables, and a farinaceous pudding. It is a bad practice to allow him to dine exclusively, either on a fruit-pudding or on any other pudding, or on pastry. Unless he be ill, he must, if he is to be healthy, strong, and courageous, eat meat every day of his life. “All courageous animals are carnivorous, and greater courage is to be expected in a people, such as the English, whose food is strong and hearty, than in the half-starved commonalty of other countries.”281

Let him be debarred from rich soups and from high-seasoned dishes, which only disorder the stomach and inflame the blood. It is a mistake to give a boy or girl broth or soup, in lieu of meat for dinner; the stomach takes such slops in a grumbling way, and is not at all satisfied. It may be well, occasionally, to give a youth with his dinner, in addition to his meat, either good soup or good broth, not highly-seasoned, made of good meat stock. But after all that can be said on the subject, a plain joint of meat, either roast or boiled, is far superior for health and strength than either soup or broth, let it be ever so good or so well made.

He should be desired to take plenty of time over his dinner, so that he may be able to chew his food well, and thus that it may be reduced to an impalpable mass, and be well mixed with the saliva,—which the action of the jaws will cause to be secreted—before it passes into the stomach. If such were usually the case, the stomach would not have double duty to perform, and a boy would not so frequently lay the foundation of indigestion, etc., which may embitter and even make miserable his after-life.

Meat, plain pudding, vegetables, bread, and hunger for sauce (which exercise will readily give), is the best, and, indeed, should be as a rule, the only dinner he should have. A youth ought not to dine later than two o’clock.

323. Do you consider broths and soups wholesome?

The stomach can digest solid much more readily than it can liquid food; on which account the dinner specified above is far preferable to one either of broth or of soup. Fluids in large quantities too much dilute the gastric juice and overdistend the stomach, and hence weaken it, and thus produce indigestion.

324. Do you approve of a boy drinking beer with his dinner?

There is no objection to a little good, mild table-beer, but strong ale ought never to be allowed. It is, indeed, questionable, whether a boy, unless he takes unusual exercise, requires anything but water with his meals.

325. Do you approve of a youth, more especially if he be weakly, having a glass or two of wine after dinner?

I disapprove of it. His young blood does not require to be inflamed and his sensitive nerves excited with wine; and if he be delicate, I should be sorry to endeavor to strengthen him by giving him such an inflammable fluid. If he be weakly, he is more predisposed to put on either fever or inflammation of some organ; and, being thus predisposed, wine would be likely to excite either the one or the other of them into action. A parent ought on no account to allow a boy to touch spirits, however much diluted; they are to the young still more deadly in their effects than wine.

326. Have you any objection to a youth drinking tea?

Not at all, provided it be not green tea, that it be not made strong, and that it have plenty of milk in it. Green tea is apt to make people nervous, and boys and girls ought not even to know what it is to be nervous.

327. Do you object to supper for a youth?

Meat suppers are highly prejudicial. If he be hungry (and if he have been much in the open air, he is almost sure to be), a piece of bread and cheese, or of bread and butter, with a draught either of new milk or of table-beer, will form the best supper he can have. He ought not to sup later than eight o’clock.

328. Do you approve of a boy having anything between meals?

I do not; let him have four meals a day, and he will require nothing in the intervals. It is a mistaken notion that “little and often is best.” The stomach requires rest as much as, or perhaps more than (for it is frequently sadly overworked) any other part of the body. I do not mean that he is to have “much and seldom:” moderation, in everything, is to be observed. Give him as much as a growing boy requires (and that is a great deal), but do not let him eat gluttonously, as many indulgent parents encourage their children to do. Intemperance in eating cannot be too strongly condemned.

329. Have you any objection to a boy having pocket money?

It is a bad practice to allow a boy much pocket money; if he be so allowed, he will be loading his stomach with sweets, fruit, and pastry, and thus his stomach will become cloyed and disordered, and the keen appetite, so characteristic of youth, will be blunted, and ill health will ensue. “In a public education, boys early learn temperance, and if the parents and friends would give them less money upon their usual visits, it would be much to their advantage, since it may justly be said that a great part of their disorders arise from surfeit, ‘plus occidit gula quam gladius’ (gluttony kills more than the sword).”282

How true is the saying that “many people dig their graves with their teeth.” You may depend upon it that more die from stuffing than from starvation!

Air and Exercise

330. Have you any remarks to make on fresh air and exercise for boys and girls?

Girls and boys, especially the former, are too much confined within doors. It is imperatively necessary, if you wish them to be strong and healthy, that they should have plenty of fresh air and exercise; remember, I mean fresh air—country air, not the close air of a town. By exercise, I mean the free unrestrained use of their limbs. Girls, in this respect, are unfortunately worse off than boys, although they have similar muscles to develop, similar lungs that require fresh air, and similar nerves to be braced and strengthened. It is not considered ladylike to be natural—all their movements must be measured by rule and compass!

The reason why so many young girls of the present day are so sallow, undersized, and ill shaped, is for the want of air and exercise. After a time the want of air and exercise, by causing ill health, makes them slothful and indolent—it is a trouble for them to move from their chairs!

Respiration, digestion, and a proper action of the bowels imperatively demand fresh air and exercise. Ill health will inevitably ensue if boys and girls are cooped up a great part of the day in a close room. A distinguished writer of the present day says: “The children of the very poor are always out and about. In this respect they are an example to those careful mammas who keep their children, the whole day long, in their chairs, reading, writing, ciphering, drawing, practicing music lessons, doing crochet work, or anything, in fact, except running about, in spite of the sunshine always peeping in and inviting them out of doors; and who, in the due course of time, are surprised to find their children growing up with incurable heart, head, lung, or stomach complaints.”

331. What is the best exercise for youth?

Walking or running, provided it be not carried to fatigue. The slightest approach to it should warn a youth to desist from carrying it further.

Walking exercise is not sufficiently insisted upon. A boy or a girl, to be in the enjoyment of good health, ought to walk at least ten miles every day. I do not mean ten miles at a stretch, but at different times of the day.

Some young ladies think it an awfully long walk if they manage a couple of miles! How can they, with such exercise, expect to be well? How can their muscles be developed? How can their nerves be braced? How can their spines be strengthened and be straight? How can their blood course merrily through their blood-vessels? How can their chests expand and be strong? Why, it is impossible! Ill health must be the penalty of such indolence, for Nature will not be trifled with!

Walking exercise, then, is the finest exercise that can be taken, and must be taken, and that without stint, if boys and girls are to be strong and well!

The advantage of our climate is, that there is not a day in the whole year that walking exercise cannot be enjoyed. I use the term enjoyed advisedly. The roads may of course be dirty; but what of that? A good, thick pair of boots will be the remedy.

Do then, let me entreat you, insist upon your girls and boys taking plenty of exercise; let them almost live in the open air! Do not coddle them; this is a rough world of ours, and they must rough it; they must be knocked about a little, and the knocks will do them good. Poor youths who are, as it were, tied to their mothers’ apron-strings, are much to be pitied; they are usually puny and delicate, and utterly deficient of self-reliance.

332. Do you approve of horse or pony exercise for boys and girls?

Most certainly I do; but still it ought not to supersede walking. Horse or pony exercise is very beneficial, and cannot be too strongly recommended. One great advantage for those living in towns, which it has over walking, is that a person may go farther into the country, and thus be enabled to breathe a purer and more healthy atmosphere. Again, it is a much more amusing exercise than walking, and this, for the young, is a great consideration indeed.

Horse exercise is for both boys and girls a splendid exercise; it improves the figure, it gives grace to the movements, it strengthens the chest, it braces the muscles, and gives to the character energy and courage.

Both boys and girls ought to be early taught to ride. There is nothing that gives more pleasure to the young than riding either on a pony or on a horse, and for younger children, even on that despised, although useful animal, a donkey. Exercise, taken with pleasure, is doubly beneficial.

If girls were to ride more on horseback than they now do, we should hear less of crooked spines and of round shoulders, of chlorosis and of hysteria, and of other numerous diseases of that class, owing, generally, to debility and to mismanagement.

Those ladies who “affect the saddle” are usually much healthier, stronger, and straighter than those who either never or but seldom ride on horseback.

Riding on horseback is both an exercise and an amusement, and is peculiarly suitable for the fair sex, more especially as their modes of exercise are somewhat limited, ladies being excluded from following many games, such as cricket and football, both of which are practiced, with such zest and benefit, by the rougher sex.

333. Do you approve of carriage exercise?

There is no muscular exertion in carriage exercise; its principal advantage is, that it enables a person to have a change of air, which may be purer than the one he is in the habit of breathing. But, whether it be so or not, change of air frequently does good, even if the air be not so pure. Carriage exercise, therefore, does only partial good, and ought never to supersede either walking or horse exercise.

334. What is the best time of the day for the taking of exercise?

In the summer time, early in the morning and before breakfast, as “cool morning air exhilarates young blood like wine.” If a boy cannot take exercise upon an empty stomach, let him have a slice of bread and a draught of milk. When he returns home, he will be able to do justice to his breakfast. In fine weather he cannot take too much exercise, provided it be not carried to fatigue.

335. What is the best time for him to keep quiet?

He ought not to take exercise immediately after—say for half an hour after—a hearty meal, or it will be likely to interfere with his digestion.

Amusements

336. What amusements do you recommend for a boy as being most beneficial to health?

Many games—such as rowing, skating, cricket, quoits, football, rackets, single-stick, bandy, bowls, skittles, and all gymnastic exercises. Such games bring the muscles into proper action, and thus cause them to be fully developed. They expand and strengthen the chest; they cause a due circulation of the blood, making it to bound merrily through the blood-vessels, and thus to diffuse health and happiness in its course. Another excellent amusement for boys is the brandishing of clubs. They ought to be made in the form of a constable’s staff, but should be much larger and heavier. The manner of handling them is so graphically described by Addison that I cannot do better than transcribe it: “When I was some years younger than I am at present, I used to employ myself in a more laborious diversion, which I learned from a Latin treatise of exercises that is written with great erudition; it is there called the σκιομαχια, or the fighting with a man’s own shadow, and consists in the brandishing of two short sticks grasped in each hand, and loaded with plugs of lead at either end. This opens the chest, exercises the limbs, and gives a man all the pleasure of boxing without the blows. I could wish that several learned men would lay out that time which they employ in controversies and disputes about nothing, in this method of fighting with their own shadows. It might conduce very much to evaporate the spleen which makes them uneasy to the public as well as to themselves.”

Another capital healthful game is single-stick, which makes a boy “to gain an upright and elastic carriage, and to learn the use of his limbs.”283 Single-stick may be taught by any drill-sergeant in the neighborhood. Do everything to make a boy strong. Remember, “the glory of young men is their strength.”284

If games were more patronized in youth, so many miserable, nervous, useless creatures would not abound. Let a boy or a girl, then, have plenty of play; let half of his or her time be spent in play.

There ought to be a gymnasium established in every town of the kingdom. The gymnasium, the cricket ground, and the swimming bath are among our finest institutions, and should be patronized accordingly.

First of all, by an abundance of exercise and of fresh air make your boys and girls strong, and then, in due time, they will be ready and be able to have their minds properly cultivated. Unfortunately, in this enlightened age, we commence at the wrong end—we put the cart before the horse—we begin by cultivating the mind, and we leave the body to be taken care of afterward; the results are, broken health, precocious, stunted, crooked, and deformed youths, and premature decay.

One great advantage of gymnastic exercise is, it makes the lungs expand, it fills the lungs with air, and by doing so, strengthens the lungs amazingly and wards off many diseases. The lungs are not sufficiently exercised and expanded; boys and girls, girls especially, do not as a rule half fill their lungs with air! now, air to the lungs is food to the lungs, and portions of the lungs have not half their proper food, and in consequence suffer.

It is very desirable that every boy and girl should, every day of his or her life, and for a quarter of an hour at least each time, go through a regular breathing exercise—that is to say, should be made to stand upright, throw back the shoulders, and the while, alternately and regularly, fully fill and fully empty the lungs of air. If this plan were daily followed, the chest and lungs would be wonderfully invigorated, and the whole body benefited.

337. Is playing the flute, blowing the bugle, or any other wind instrument, injurious to health?

Decidedly so; the lungs and the windpipe are brought into unnatural action by them. If a boy be of a consumptive habit, this will, of course, hold good with tenfold force. If a youth must be musical, let him be taught singing, as that, provided the lungs be not diseased, will be beneficial.

338. What amusements do you recommend for a girl?

Archery, skipping, horse exercise, croquet, the hand-swing, the fly-pole, skating, and dancing are among the best. Archery expands the chest, throws back the shoulders, thus improving the figure, and develops the muscles. Skipping is exceedingly good exercise for a girl, every part of the body being put into action by it. Horse exercise is splendid for a girl; it improves the figure amazingly—it is most exhilarating and amusing; moreover, it gives her courage and makes her self-reliant. Croquet develops and improves the muscles of the arms, beautifies the complexion, strengthens the back, and throws out the chest. Croquet is for girls and women what cricket is for boys and men—a glorious game. Croquet has improved both the health and the happiness of womankind more than any game ever before invented. Croquet, in the bright sunshine, with the winds of heaven blowing about the players, is not like a ball in a stifling hot ball-room, with gas-lights poisoning the air. Croquet is a more sensible amusement than dancing; it brings the intellect as well as the muscles into play. The man who invented croquet has deserved greater glory, and has done more good to his species, than many philosophers whose names are emblazoned in story. Hand-swing is a capital exercise for a girl; the whole of the body is thrown into action by it, and the spine, the shoulders, and the shoulder-blades are especially benefited. The fly-pole, too, is good exercise for the whole of the muscles of the body, especially of the legs and the arms. Skating is as exhilarating as a glass of champagne, but will do her far more good! Skating exhilarates the spirits, improves the figure, and makes a girl balance and carry herself well; it is a most becoming exercise for her, and is much in every way to be commended. Moreover, skating gives a girl courage and self-reliance Dancing, followed as a rational amusement, causes a free circulation of the blood, and, provided it does not induce her to sit up late at night, is most beneficial.

339. If dancing be so beneficial, why are balls such fruitful sources of coughs, of colds, and consumptions?

On many accounts. They induce young ladies to sit up late at night; they cause them to dress more lightly than they are accustomed to do; and thus thinly clad, they leave their homes while the weather is perhaps piercing cold, to plunge into a suffocating, hot ball-room, made doubly injurious by the immense number of lights, which consume the oxygen intended for the due performance of the healthy function of the lungs. Their partners, the brilliancy of the scene, and the music excite their nerves to undue, and thus to unnatural action, and what is the consequence? Fatigue, weakness, hysterics, and extreme depression follow. They leave the heated ball-room, when the morning has far advanced, to breathe the bitterly cold and frequently damp air of a winter’s night, and what is the result? Hundreds die of consumption who might otherwise have lived. Ought there not, then, to be a distinction between a ball at midnight and a dance in the evening?

340. But still, would you have a girl brought up to forego the pleasures of a ball?

If a parent prefer her so-called pleasures to her health, certainly not; to such a mother I do not address myself.

341. Have you any remarks to make on singing, or on reading aloud?

Before a mother allows her daughter to take lessons in singing, she should ascertain that there be no actual disease of the lungs, for if there be, it will probably excite it into action; but if no disease exist, singing or reading aloud is very conducive to health. Public singers are seldom known to die of consumption. Singing expands the chest, improves the pronunciation, enriches the voice for conversation, strengthens the lungs, and wards off many of their diseases.

Education

342. Do you approve of corporal punishment in schools?

I do not. I consider it to be decidedly injurious both to body and mind. Is it not painful to witness the pale cheeks and the dejected looks of those boys who are often flogged? If their tempers are mild, their spirits are broken; if their dispositions are at all obstinate, they become hardened and willful, and are made little better than brutes.285 A boy who is often flogged loses that noble ingenuousness and fine sensibility so characteristic of youth. He looks upon his school as his prison, and his master as his jailer, and, as he grows up to manhood, hates and despises the man who has flogged him. Corporal punishment is revolting, disgusting, and demoralizing to the boy, and is degrading to the school-master as a man and as a Christian.

If school-masters must flog, let them flog their own sons. If they must ruin the tempers, the dispositions, and the constitutions of boys, they have more right to practice upon their own than on other people’s children! Oh that parents would raise—and that without any uncertain sound—their voices against such abominations, and the detestable cane would soon be banished the school-room! “I am confident that no boy,” says Addison, “who will not be allured by letters without blows, will never be brought to anything with them. A great or good mind must necessarily be the worse for such indignities; and it is a sad change to lose of its virtue for the improvement of its knowledge. No one has gone through what they call a great school, but must have remembered to have seen children of excellent and ingenuous natures (as have afterward appeared in their manhood). I say, no man has passed through this way of education but must have seen an ingenuous creature expiring with shame, with pale looks, beseeching sorrow, and silent tears, throw up its honest eyes, and kneel on its tender knees to an inexorable blockhead, to be forgiven the false quantity of a word in making a Latin verse. The child is punished, and the next day he commits a like crime, and so a third, with the same consequence. I would fain ask any reasonable man whether this lad, in the simplicity of his native innocence, full of shame, and capable of any impression from that grace of soul, was not fitter for any purpose in this life than after that spark of virtue is extinguished in him, though he is able to write twenty verses in an evening?”

How often is corporal punishment resorted to at school because the master is in a passion, and he vents his rage upon the poor school-boy’s unfortunate back!

Oh! the mistaken notion that flogging will make a bad-behaved boy a good boy; it has the contrary effect. “‘I dunno how ’tis, sir,’ said an old farm-laborer, in reply to a question from his clergyman respecting the bad behavior of his children, ‘I dunno how ’tis; I beats ’em till they’re black and blue, and when they won’t kneel down to pray I knocks ’em down, and yet they ain’t good.’”286

In an excellent article in Temple Bar (November, 1864) on flogging in the army, the following sensible remarks occur: “In nearly a quarter of a century’s experience with soldiers, the writer has always, and without a single exception, found flogging makes a good man bad, and a bad man worse.” With equal truth it may be said that, without a single exception, flogging makes a good boy bad, and a bad boy worse. How many men owe their ferocity to the canings they received when school-boys! The early floggings hardened and soured them, and blunted their sensibility.

Dr. Arnold of Rugby, one of the best school-masters that England ever produced, seldom caned a boy—not more than once or twice during the half year; but when he did cane him, he charged for the use of the cane each time in the bill, in order that the parents might know how many times their son had been punished. At some of our public schools nowadays a boy is caned as many times in a morning as the worthy doctor would have caned him during the whole half year; but then the doctor treated the boys as gentlemen, and trusted much to their honor; but now many school-masters trust much to fear, little to honor, and treat them as brute beasts.

It might be said that the discipline of a school cannot be maintained unless the boys be frequently caned—that it must be either caning or expulsion. I deny these assertions. Dr. Arnold was able to conduct his school with honor to himself, and with immense benefit to the rising generation, without either frequent canings or expulsions. The humane plan, however, requires at first both trouble and patience; and trouble some school-masters do not like, and patience they do not possess; the use of the cane is quick, sharp, and at the time effective.

If caning be ever necessary, which it might occasionally be, for the telling of lies for instance, or for gross immorality, let the head master himself be the only one to perform the operation, but let him not be allowed to delegate it to others. A law ought in all public schools to be in force to that effect. High time that something was done to abate such disgraceful practices.

Never should a school-master, or any one else, be allowed, on any pretense whatever, to strike a boy upon his head. Boxing of the ears has sometimes caused laceration of the drum of the ear, and consequent partial deafness for life. Boxing of the ears injures the brain, and therefore the intellect.

It might be said that I am traveling out of my province in making remarks on corporal chastisement in schools. But, with deference, I reply that I am strictly in the path of duty. My office is to inform you of everything that is detrimental to your children’s health and happiness; and corporal punishment is assuredly most injurious both to their health and happiness. It is the bounden duty of every man, and especially of every medical man, to lift up his voice against the abominable, disgusting, and degrading system of flogging, and to warn parents of the danger and the mischief of sending boys to those schools where flogging is permitted.

343. Have you any observations to make on the selection of a female boarding-school?

Home education, where it be practicable, is far preferable to sending a girl to school; as at home, her health, her morals, and her household duties can be attended to much more effectually than from home. Moreover, it is a serious injury to a girl, in more ways than one, to separate her from her own brothers; they very much lose their affection for each other, and mutual companionship (so delightful and beneficial between brothers and sisters) is severed.

If home education be not practicable, great care must be taken in making choice of a school. Boarding-school education requires great reformation. Accomplishments, superficial acquirements, and brainwork are the order of the day; health is very little studied. You ought, in the education of your daughters, to remember that they, in a few years, will be the wives and the mothers of England; and if they have not health and strength, and a proper knowledge of household duties to sustain their characters, what useless, listless wires and mothers they will make!

Remember, then, the body and not the mind ought in early life to be principally cultivated and strengthened, and that the growing brain will not bear, with impunity, much book learning. The brain of a schoolgirl is frequently injured by getting up voluminous questions by rote, that are not of the slightest use or benefit to her or to any one else. Instead of this ridiculous system, educate a girl to be useful and self-reliant. “From babyhood they are given to understand that helplessness is feminine and beautiful; helpfulness, except in certain received forms of manifestation, unwomanly and ugly. The boys may do a thousand things which are ‘not proper for little girls.’”287

From her twelfth to her seventeenth year is the most important epoch of a girl’s existence, as regards her future health, and consequently, in a great measure, her future happiness; and one in which, more than at any other period of her life, she requires a plentiful supply of fresh air, exercise, recreation, a variety of innocent amusements, and an abundance of good nourishment, more especially fresh meat; if therefore you have determined on sending your girl to school, you must ascertain that the pupils have as much plain, wholesome, nourishing food as they can eat,288 that the school be situated in a healthy spot, that it be well drained, that there be a large play-ground attached to it, that the young people are allowed plenty of exercise in the open air—indeed, that at least one-third of the day is spent there in croquet, skipping, archery, battledore and shuttlecock, gardening, walking, running, etc.

Take care that the school-rooms are well ventilated, that they are not overcrowded, and that the pupils are allowed chairs to sit upon, and not those abominations—forms and stools. If you wish to try the effect of them upon yourself, sit for a couple of hours without stirring upon a form or upon a stool, and take my word for it you will insist that forms and stools be banished forever from the school-room.

Assure yourself that the pupils are compelled to rise early in the morning, and that they retire early to rest: that each young lady has a separate bed,289 and that many are not allowed to sleep in the same room, and that the apartments are large and well ventilated. In fine, their health and their morals ought to be preferred far above all their accomplishments.

344. They use, in some schools, straight-backed chairs, to make a girl sit upright and to give strength to her back: do you approve of them?

Certainly not. The natural and the graceful curve of the back is not the curve of a straight-backed chair. Straight-backed chairs are instruments of torture, and are more likely to make a girl crooked than to make her straight. Sir Astley Cooper ridiculed straight-backed chairs, and well he might. It is always well for a mother to try, for some considerable time, such ridiculous inventions upon herself before she experiments upon her unfortunate daughter. The position is most unnatural. I do not approve of a girl lounging and lolling on a sofa; but, if she be tired and wants to rest herself, let her, like any other reasonable being, sit upon a comfortable ordinary chair.

If you want her to be straight, let her be made strong; and if she is to be strong, she must use plenty of exercise and exertion, such as drilling, dancing, skipping, archery, croquet, hand-swinging, horse exercise, swimming, bowls, etc. This is the plan to make her back straight and her muscles strong. Why should we bring up a girl differently from a boy? Muscular gymnastic exercises and health-giving exertion are unladylike, forsooth!

Household Work for Girls

345. Do you recommend household work as a means of health for my daughter?

Decidedly. Whatever you do, do not make a fine lady of her, or she will become puny and delicate, listless and miserable. A girl, let her station be what it might, ought, as soon as she be old enough, to make her own bed. There is no exercise to expand the figure and to beautify the shape better than bed-making. Let her make tidy her own room. Let her use her hands and her arms. Let her, to a great extent, be self-reliant, and let her wait upon herself. There is nothing vulgar in her being useful. Let me ask, Of what use are many girls of the present day? They are utterly useless. Are they happy? No, for the want of employment they are miserable—I mean, bodily employment, household work. Many girls, nowadays, unfortunately, are made to look upon a pretty face, dress, and accomplishments as the only things needed! And, when they do become women and wives—if ever they do become women and wives—what miserable, lackadaisical wives, and what senseless, useless mothers they make!

Choice of Profession or Trade

346. What profession or trade would you recommend a boy of a delicate or of a consumptive habit to follow?

If a youth be delicate, it is a common practice among parents either to put him to some light in-door trade, or, if they can afford it, to one of the learned professions. Such a practice is absurd, and fraught with danger The close confinement of an in-door trade is highly prejudicial to health. The hard reading requisite to fit a man to fill, for instance, the sacred office, only increases delicacy of constitution. The stooping at a desk, in an attorney’s office, is most trying to the chest. The harass, the anxiety, the disturbed nights, the interrupted meals, and the intense study necessary to fit a man for the medical profession, is still more dangerous to health than either law, divinity, or any in-door trade. “Sir Walter Scott says of the country surgeon, that he is worse fed and harder wrought than any one else in the parish, except it be his horse.”290

A modern writer, speaking of the life of a medical man, observes: “There is no career which so rapidly wears away the powers of life, because there is no other which requires a greater activity of mind and body. He has to bear the changes of weather, continued fatigue, irregularity in his meals, and broken rest; to live in the midst of miasma and contagion. If in the country, he has to traverse considerable distances on horseback, exposed to wind and storm—to brave all dangers to go to the relief of suffering humanity. A fearful truth for medical men has been established by the table of mortality by Dr. Casper, published in the British Review. Of 1000 members of the medical profession, 600 died before their sixty-second year; while of persons leading a quiet life—such as agriculturists or theologians—the mortality is only 347. If we take 100 individuals of each of these classes, 43 theologians, 40 agriculturists, 35 clerks, 32 soldiers, will reach their seventieth year: of 100 professors of the healing art, 24 only will reach that age. They are the sign-posts to health; they can show the road to old age, but rarely tread it themselves.”

If a boy, therefore, be of a delicate or of a consumptive habit, an out-door calling should be advised, such as that of a farmer, of a tanner, or a land-surveyor; but, if he be of an inferior station of society, the trade of a butcher may be recommended. Tanners and butchers are seldom known to die of consumption.

I cannot refrain from reprobating the too common practice among parents of bringing up their boys to the professions. The anxieties and the heartaches which they undergo if they do not succeed (and how can many of them succeed when there is such a superabundance of candidates?) materially injure their health. “I very much wonder,” says Addison, “at the humor of parents, who will not rather choose to place their sons in a way of life where an honest industry cannot but thrive, than in stations where the greatest probity, learning, and good sense may miscarry. How many men are country curates, that might have made themselves aldermen of London by a right improvement of a smaller sum of money than what is usually laid out upon a learned education? A sober, frugal person, of slender parts and a slow apprehension, might have thrived in trade, though he starves upon physic; as a man would be well enough pleased to buy silks of one whom he could not venture to feel his pulse. Vagellius is careful, studious, and obliging, but withal a little thick-skulled; he has not a single client, but might have had abundance of customers. The misfortune is, that parents take a liking to a particular profession, and therefore desire their sons may be of it; whereas, in so great an affair of life, they should consider the genius and abilities of their children more than their own inclinations. It is the great advantage of a trading nation, that there are very few in it so dull and heavy who may not be placed in stations of life which may give them an opportunity of making their fortunes. A well-regulated commerce is not, like law, physic, or divinity, to be overstocked with hands; but, on the contrary, flourishes by multitudes, and gives employment to all its professors. Fleets of merchantmen are so many squadrons of floating shops, that vend our wares and manufactures in all the markets of the world, and find out chapmen under both the tropics.”

347. Then, do you recommend a delicate youth to be brought up either to a profession or to a trade?

Decidedly. There is nothing so injurious for a delicate boy, or for any one else, as idleness. Work, in moderation, enlivens the spirits, braces the nerves, and gives tone to the muscles, and thus strengthens the constitution. Of all miserable people, the idle boy or the idle man is the most miserable! If you are poor, of course you will bring him up to some calling; but if you are rich, and your boy is delicate (if he be not actually in a consumption), you will, if you are wise, still bring him up to some trade or profession. You will, otherwise, be making a rod for your own as well as for your son’s back. Oh, what a blessed thing is work!

Sleep

348. Have you any remarks to make on the sleep of boys and girls?

Sleeping-rooms are, generally, the smallest in the house, whereas, for health’s sake, they ought to be the largest. If it be impossible to have a large bedroom, I should advise a parent to have a dozen or twenty holes (each about the size of a florin) bored with a center-bit in the upper part of the chamber-door, and the same number of holes in the lower part of the door, so as constantly to admit a free current of air from the passages. If this cannot readily be done, then let the bedroom door be left ajar all night, a door-chain being on the door to prevent intrusion; and, in the summer time, during the night, let the window-sash, to the extent of about two or three inches, be left open.

If there be a dressing-room next to the bedroom, it will be well to have the dressing-room window, instead of the bedroom window, open at night. The dressing-room door will regulate the quantity of air to be admitted into the bedroom, opening it either little or much, as the weather might be cold or otherwise.

Fresh air during sleep is indispensable to health.—If a bedroom be close, the sleep, instead of being calm and refreshing, is broken and disturbed; and the boy, when he awakes in the morning, feels more fatigued than when he retired to rest.

If sleep is to be refreshing, the air, then, must be pure, and free from carbonic acid gas, which is constantly being evolved from the lungs. If sleep is to be health-giving, the lungs ought to have their proper food, oxygen,—and not be cheated by giving them instead a poison, carbonic acid gas.

It would be well for each boy to have a separate room to himself, and each girl a separate room to herself. If two boys are obliged, from the smallness of the house, to sleep in one room, and if two girls, from the same cause, are compelled to occupy the same chamber, by all means let each one have a separate bed to himself and to herself, as it is so much more healthy and expedient for both boys and girls to sleep alone.

The roof of the bed should be left open—that is to say, the top of the bedstead ought not be covered with bed furniture, but should be open to the ceiling, in order to encourage a free ventilation of air. A bed-curtain may be allowed on the side of the bed where there are windy currents of air; otherwise bed-curtains and valances ought on no account to be allowed. They prevent a free circulation of the air. A youth should sleep on a horse-hair mattress. Such mattresses greatly improve the figure and strengthen the frame. During the daytime, provided it does not rain, the windows must be thrown wide open, and, directly after he has risen from bed, the clothes ought to be thrown entirely back, in order that they may become, before the bed be made, well ventilated and purified by the air:

“Do you wish to be healthy?—
  Then keep the house sweet;
As soon as you’re up
  Shake each blanket and sheet.

Leave the beds to get fresh
  On the close-crowded floor;
Let the wind sweep right through—
  Open window and door.

The bad air will rush out
  As the good air comes in,
Just as goodness is stronger
  And better than sin.

Do this, it’s soon done,
  In the fresh morning air,—
It will lighten your labor
  And lessen your care.

You are weary—no wonder,
  There’s weight and there’s gloom
Hanging heavily round
  In each overfull room.

Be sure all the trouble
  Is profit and gain,
For there’s headache, and heartache,
  And fever, and pain,

Hovering round, settling down
  In the closeness and heat:
Let the wind sweep right through
  Till the air’s fresh and sweet.

And more cheerful you’ll feel
  Through the toil of the day;
More refreshed you’ll awake
  When the night’s pass’d away.”291

Plants and flowers ought not to be allowed to remain in a chamber at night. Experiments have proved that plants and flowers take up, in the daytime, carbonic acid gas (the refuse of respiration), and give off oxygen (a gas so necessary and beneficial to health), but give out in the night season a poisonous exhalation.

Early rising cannot be too strongly insisted upon; nothing is more conducive to health, and thus to long life. A youth is frequently allowed to spend the early part of the morning in bed, breathing the impure atmosphere of a bedroom, when he should be up and about, inhaling the balmy and health-giving breezes of the morning:

“Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed:
The breath of night’s destructive to the hue
Of ev’ry flower that blows. Go to the field,
And ask the humble daisy why it sleeps
Soon as the sun departs? Why close the eyes
Of blossoms infinite, long ere the moon
Her oriental veil puts off? Think why,
Nor let the sweetest blossom Nature boasts
Be thus exposed to night’s unkindly damp.
Well may it droop, and all its freshness lose,
Compell’d to taste the rank and pois’nous steam
Of midnight theater and morning ball.
Give to repose the solemn hour she claims;
And from the forehead of the morning steal
The sweet occasion. Oh! there is a charm
Which morning has, that gives the brow of age
A smack of youth, and makes the lip of youth
Shed perfume exquisite. Expect it not,
Ye who till noon upon a down-bed lie,
Indulging feverish sleep.”292

If early rising be commenced in childhood it becomes a habit, and will then probably be continued through life. A boy ought on no account to be roused from his sleep; but as soon as he be awake in the morning, he should be encouraged to rise. Dozing—that state between sleeping and waking—is injurious; it enervates both body and mind, and is as detrimental to health as dram-drinking! But if he rise early, he must go to bed betimes; it is a bad practice to keep him up until the family retire to rest. He ought, winter and summer, to seek his pillow by nine o’clock, and should rise as soon as he awakes in the morning.

Let me urge upon a parent the great importance of not allowing the chimney of any bedroom, or of any room in the house, to be stopped, as many are in the habit of doing, to prevent, as they call it, a draught, but to prevent, as I should call it, health.

349. How many hours of sleep ought a boy to have?

This, of course, will depend upon the exercise he takes; but, on an average, he should have every night at least eight hours. It is a mistaken notion that a boy does better with little sleep. Infants, children, and youths require more than those who are further advanced in years; hence old people can frequently do with little sleep. This may in a measure be accounted for from the quantity of exercise the young take. Another reason may be, the young have neither pain nor care to keep them awake; while, on the contrary, the old have frequently one or both:

“Care keeps his watch on every old man’s eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie.”293

On the Teeth and the Gums

350. What are the best means of keeping the teeth and the gums in a healthy state?

I would recommend the teeth and the gums to be well brushed with warm salt and water, in the proportion of one large teaspoonful of salt to a tumbler of water. I was induced to try the above plan by the recommendation of an intelligent American writer.294

The salt and water should be used every night at bedtime.

The following is an excellent tooth-powder:

Take of finely-powdered Peruvian Bark;
          „ Prepared Coral;
          „ Prepared Chalk;
          „ Myrrh, of each half an ounce;
          „ Orris root, a quarter of an ounce:

Mix them well together in a mortar, and preserve the powder in a wide-mouth stoppered bottle.

The teeth ought to be well brushed with the above tooth-powder every morning.

If the teeth be much decayed, and if, in consequence, the breath be offensive, two ounces of finely-powdered charcoal, well mixed with the above ingredients, will be found a valuable addition.

Some persons clean their teeth every morning with soap; if soap be used it ought to be Castile soap, and if the teeth be not white and clear, Castile soap is an excellent cleanser of the teeth, and may be used in lieu of the tooth-powder as before recommended.

There are few persons who brush the teeth properly. I will tell you the right way. First of all procure a tooth-brush of the best make, and of rather hard bristles, to enable it to penetrate into all the nooks and corners of the teeth; then, having put a small quantity of warm water into your mouth, letting the principal of it escape into the basin, dip your brush in warm water, and if you are about using Castile soap, rub the brush on a cake of the soap, and then well brush your teeth, first upward and then downward, then from side to side—from right to left and from left to right—then the backs of the teeth, then apply the brush to the tops of the crowns of the teeth both of the upper and of the lower jaw,—so that every part of each tooth, including the gums, may in turn be well cleansed, and be well brushed. Be not afraid of using the brush: a good brushing and dressing will do the teeth and the gums an immensity of good; it will make the breath sweet, and will preserve the teeth sound and good. After using the brush the mouth must, of course, be well rinsed out with warm water.

The finest set of teeth I ever saw in my life belonged to a middle-aged gentleman; the teeth had neither spot nor blemish—they were like beautiful pearls. He never had toothache in his life, and did not know what toothache meant! He brushed his teeth, every morning, with soap and water, in the manner I have previously recommended. I can only say to you—go and do likewise!

Camphor ought never to be used as an ingredient of tooth-powder, it makes the teeth brittle. Camphor certainly has the effect of making the teeth, for a time, look very white; but it is an evanescent beauty.

Tartar is apt to accumulate between and around the teeth; it is better in such a case not to remove it by scaling instruments, but to adopt the plan recommended by Dr. Richardson, namely, to well brush the teeth with pure vinegar and water.

Prevention of Disease, Etc.

351. If a boy or a girl show great precocity of intellect, is any organ likely to become affected?

A greater quantity of arterial blood is sent to the brain of those who are prematurely talented, and hence it becomes more than ordinarily developed. Such advantages are not unmixed with danger; this same arterial blood may excite and feed inflammation, and either convulsions, or water on the brain, or insanity, or, at last, idiocy may follow. How proud a mother is in having a precocious child! How little is she aware that precocity is frequently an indication of disease!

352. How can danger in such a case be warded off?

It behooves a parent, if her son be precocious, to restrain him—to send him to a quiet country place, free from the excitement of the town; and when he is sent to school, to give directions to the master that he is not on any account to tax his intellect (for a master is apt, if he have a clever boy, to urge him forward); and to keep him from those institutions where a spirit of rivalry is maintained, and where the brain is thus kept in a state of constant excitement. Medals and prizes are well enough for those who have moderate abilities, but dangerous, indeed, to those who have brilliant ones.

An overworked precocious brain is apt to cause the death of the owner; and if it does not do so, it in too many instances injures the brain irreparably, and the possessor of such an organ, from being one of the most intellectual of children, becomes one of the most commonplace of men.

Let me urge you, if you have a precocious child, to give, and that before it be too late, the subject in question your best consideration.

353. Are precocious boys in their general health usually strong or delicate?

Delicate. Nature seems to have given a delicate body to compensate for the advantages of a talented mind. A precocious youth is predisposed to consumption, more so than to any other disease. The hard study which he frequently undergoes excites the disease into action. It is not desirable, therefore, to have a precocious child. A writer in “Fraser’s Magazine” speaks very much to the purpose when he says, “Give us intellectual beef rather than intellectual veal.”

354. What habit of body is most predisposed to Scrofula?

He or she who has a moist, cold, fair, delicate, and almost transparent skin, large prominent blue eyes, protuberant forehead, light-brown or auburn hair, rosy cheeks, pouting lips, milk-white teeth, long neck, high shoulders, small, flat, and contracted chest, tumid bowels, large joints, thin limbs, and flabby muscles, is the person most predisposed to scrofula. The disease is not entirely confined to the above; sometimes he or she who has black hair, dark eyes and complexion, is subject to it, but yet far less frequently than the former. It is a remarkable fact that the most talented are the most prone to scrofula, and being thus clever their intellects are too often cultivated at the expense of their health. In infancy and childhood, either water on the brain or mesenteric disease; in youth, pulmonary consumption is frequently their doom. They, are like shining meteors; their life is brilliant, but short.

355. How may Scrofula be warded off?

Strict attention to the rules of health is the means to prevent scrofula. Books, unless as an amusement, ought to be discarded. The patient must almost live in the open air, and his residence should be a healthy country place, where the air is dry and bracing; if it be at a farm-house, in a salubrious neighborhood, so much the better. In selecting a house for a patient predisposed to scrofula, good pure water should be an important requisite—indeed for every one who values his health. Early rising in such a case is most beneficial. Wine, spirits, and all fermented liquors ought to be avoided. Beef-steaks and mutton-chops in abundance, and plenty of milk and farinaceous food—such as rice, sago, arrow-root, etc.—should be his diet.

Scrofula, if the above rules be strictly and perseveringly followed, may be warded off; but there must be no half measures, no trying to serve two masters—to cultivate at the same time the health and the intellect. The brain, until the body becomes strong, must not be taxed. “You may prevent scrofula by care; but that some children are originally predisposed to the disease there cannot be the least doubt, and in such cases the education and the habits of youth should be so directed as to ward off a complaint the effects of which are so frequently fatal.”295

356. But suppose the disease to be already formed, what must then be done?

The plan recommended above must still be pursued, not by fits and starts, but steadily and continuously, for it is a complaint that requires a vast deal of patience and great perseverance. Warm and cold sea-bathing in such a case is generally most beneficial. In a patient with confirmed scrofula it will of course be necessary to consult a skillful and experienced doctor.

But do not allow, without a second opinion, any plan to be adopted that will weaken the system, which is already too much depressed. No, rather build up the body by good nourishing diet (as previously recommended), by cod-liver oil, by a dry, bracing atmosphere, such as either Brighton, or Ramsgate, Llandudno; or, if the lungs be delicate, by a more sheltered coast, such as either St. Leonard’s or Torquay.

Let no active purging, no mercurials, no violent, desperate remedies be allowed. If the patient cannot be cured without them, I am positive that he will not be cured with them.

But do not despair; many scrofulous patients are cured by time and by judicious treatment. But if desperate remedies are to be used, the poor patient had better by far be left to Nature. “Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.”296

357. Have you any remarks to make on a girl stooping?

A girl ought never to be allowed to stoop: stooping spoils the figure, weakens the chest, and interferes with the digestion. If she cannot help stooping, you may depend upon it that she is in bad health, and that a medical man ought to be consulted. As soon as her health is improved the dancing-master should be put in requisition, and calisthenic and gymnastic exercises should be resorted to. Horse exercise and swimming in such a case are very beneficial. The girl should live well, on good nourishing diet, and not be too closely confined either to the house or to her lessons. She ought during the night to lie on a horse-hair mattress, and during the day, for two or three hours, flat on her back on a reclining board. Stooping, if neglected, is very likely to lead to consumption.

358. If a boy be round-shouldered and slouching in his gait, what ought to be done?

Let him be drilled; there is nothing more likely to benefit him than drilling. You never see a soldier round-shouldered nor slouching in his gait. He walks every inch like a man. Look at the difference in appearance between a country laborer and a soldier! It is the drilling that makes the difference. “Oh, for a drill-sergeant to teach them to stand upright, and to turn out their toes, and to get rid of that slouching, hulking gait, which gives such a look of clumsiness and stupidity!”297

359. My daughter has grown out of shape, she has grown on one side, her spine is not straight, and her ribs bulge out more on the one side than on the other: what is the cause, and can anything be done to remedy the deformity?

The causes of this lateral curvature of the spine, and consequent bulging out of the ribs that you have just now described, arise either from delicacy of constitution, from the want of proper exercise, from too much learning, or from too little play, or from not sufficient or proper nourishment for a rapidly-growing body. I am happy to say that such a case, by judicious treatment, can generally be cured—namely, by gymnastic exercises, such as the hand-swing, the fly-pole, the patent parlor gymnasium, the chest expander, the skipping-rope, the swimming bath; all sorts of out-door games, such as croquet, archery, etc.; by plenty of good nourishment, by making her a child of Nature, by letting her almost live in the open air, and by throwing books to the winds. But let me strongly urge you not, unless ordered by an experienced surgeon, to allow any mechanical restraints or appliances to be used. If she be made strong, the muscles themselves will pull both the spine and the ribs into their proper places, more especially if judicious games and exercises (as I have before advised), and other treatment of a strengthening and bracing nature, which a medical man will indicate to you, be enjoined. Mechanical appliances will, if not judiciously applied, and in a proper case, waste away the muscles, and will thus increase the mischief; if they cause the ribs to be pushed in in one place, they will bulge them out in another, until, instead of being one, there will be a series of deformities. No, the giving of strength and the judicious exercising of the muscles are, for a lateral curvature of the spine and the consequent bulging out of one side of the ribs, the proper remedies, and, in the majority of cases, are most effectual, and quite sufficient for the purpose.

I think it well to strongly impress upon a mother’s mind the great importance of early treatment. If the above advice be followed, every curvature in the beginning might be cured. Cases of several years’ standing might, with judicious treatment, be wonderfully relieved.

Bear in mind, then, that if the girl is to be made straight, she is first of all to be made strong; the latter, together with the proper exercises of the muscles, will lead to the former; and the earlier a medical man takes it in hand, the more rapid, the more certain, and the more effectual will be the cure.

An inveterate, long-continued and neglected case of curvature of the spine and bulging out of the ribs on one side might require mechanical appliances, but such a case can only be decided on by an experienced surgeon, who ought always, in the first place, to be consulted.

360. Is a slight spitting of blood to be looked upon as a dangerous symptom?

Spitting of blood is always to be looked upon with suspicion, even when a youth appears in other respects to be in good health; it is frequently the forerunner of consumption. It might be said that, by mentioning the fact, I am unnecessarily alarming a parent, but it would be a false kindness if I did not do so:

“I must be cruel only to be kind.”298

Let me ask when is consumption to be cured? Is it at the onset, or is it when it is confirmed? If a mother had been more generally aware that spitting of blood was frequently the forerunner of consumption, she would, in the management of her offspring, have taken greater precautions; she would have made everything give way to the preservation of their health; and, in many instances, she would have been amply repaid by having the lives of her children spared to her. We frequently hear of patients in confirmed consumption being sent to Mentone, to Madeira, and to other foreign parts. Can anything be more cruel or absurd? If there be any disease that requires the comforts of home—and truly may an Englishman’s dwelling be called home!—and good nursing more than another, it is consumption.

361. What is the death-rate of Consumption in England? At what age does Consumption most frequently occur? Are girls more liable to it than boys? What are the symptoms of this disease?

It is asserted, on good authority,299 that there always are, in England, 78,000 cases of consumption, and that the yearly death-rate of this fell disease alone is 39,000! Consumption more frequently shows itself between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one; after then, the liability to the disease gradually diminishes, until at the age of forty-five it becomes comparatively rare. Boys are more prone to this complaint than girls. Some of the most important symptoms of pulmonary consumption are indicated by the stethoscope; but, as I am addressing a mother, it would, of course, be quite out of place to treat of such signs in Conversations of this kind. The symptoms it might be well for a parent to recognize, in order that she may seek aid early, I will presently describe. It is perfectly hopeless to expect to cure consumption unless advice be sought at the onset, as the only effectual good in this disease is to be done at first.

It might be well to state that consumption creeps on insidiously. One of the earliest symptoms of this dreadful scourge is a slight, dry, short cough, attended with tickling and irritation at the top of the throat. This cough generally occurs in the morning; but, after some time, comes on at night, and gradually throughout the day and the night. Frequently during the early stage of the disease a slight spitting of blood occurs. Now this is a most dangerous symptom; indeed, I may go so far as to say that, as a rule, it is almost a sure sign that the patient is in the first stage of a consumption.

There is usually hoarseness, not constant, but coming on if the patient be tired, or toward the evening; there is also a sense of lassitude and depression, shortness of breathing, a feeling of being quickly wearied—more especially on the slightest exertion. The hair of a consumptive person usually falls off, and what little remains is weak and poor; the joints of the fingers become enlarged, or clubbed as it is sometimes called; the patient loses flesh, and, after some time, night-sweats make their appearance; then we may know that hectic fever has commenced.

Hectic begins with chilliness, which is soon followed by flushings of the face, and by burning heat of the hands and feet, especially of the palms and the soles. This is soon succeeded by perspirations. The patient has generally, during the day, two decided paroxysms of hectic fever—the one at noon, which lasts about five hours, the other in the evening, which is more severe, and ends in violent perspirations, which perspirations continue the whole night through. He may, during the day, have several attacks of hectic flushes of the face, especially after eating; at one moment he complains of being too hot, and rushes to the cool air; the next moment he is too cold, and almost scorches himself by sitting too near the fire. Whenever the circumscribed hectic flush is on the cheek, it looks as though the cheek had been painted with vermilion, then is the time when the palms of the hands are burning hot.

The expectoration at first is merely mucus, but after a time it assumes a characteristic appearance; it has a roundish, flocculent, woolly form, each portion of phlegm keeping, as it were, distinct; and if the expectoration be stirred in water, it has a milk-like appearance. The patient is commonly harassed by frequent bowel complaints, which rob him of what little strength he has left. The feet and ankles swell. The perspiration, as before remarked, comes on in the evening, continues all night, more especially toward morning and while the patient is asleep; during the time he is awake, even at night, he seldom sweats much. The thrush generally shows itself toward the close of the disease, attacking the tongue, the tonsils, and the soft palate, and is a sure harbinger of approaching death. Emaciation rapidly sets in.

If we consider the immense engines of destruction at work—viz., the colliquative (melting) sweats, the violent bowel complaints, the vital parts that are affected, the harassing cough, the profuse expectoration, the hectic fever, the distressing exertion of struggling to breathe,—we cannot be surprised that “consumption had hung out her red flag of no surrender,” and that death soon closes the scene. In girls, provided they have been previously regular, menstruation gradually declines, and then entirely disappears.

362. What are the causes of Consumption?

The predisposing causes of consumption are the scrofulous habit of body, hereditary predisposition, narrow or contracted chest, deformed spine, delicacy of constitution, bad and scanty diet, or food containing but little nourishment, impure air, close in-door confinement in schools, in shops, and in factories, ill-ventilated apartments, dissipation, late hours, overtaxing with book learning the growing brain, thus producing debility, want of proper out-door exercises and amusements, tight lacing—indeed, anything and everything that either will debilitate the constitution, or will interfere with or will impede the proper action of the lungs, will be the predisposing causes of this fearful and lamentable disease.

An ill, poor, and insufficient diet is the mother of many diseases, and especially of consumption: “Whatsoever was the father of a disease, an ill diet was the mother.”

The most common exciting causes of consumption are slighted colds, neglected inflammation of the chest, long continuance of influenza, sleeping in damp beds, allowing wet clothes to dry on the body, unhealthy employments—such as needle grinding, pearl-button making, etc.

363. Supposing a youth to have spitting of blood, what precautions would you take to prevent it from ending in Consumption?

I should let his health be the first consideration; I should throw books to the winds; if he be at school, I should advise you to take him away; if he be in trade, I should cancel his indentures; if he be in the town, I should send him to a sheltered healthy spot in the country, or to the south coast; as, for instance, either to St. Leonards-on-Sea, or to Torquay.

I should be particular in his clothing, taking especial care to keep his chest and feet warm. If he did not already wear flannel waistcoats, let it be winter or summer, I should recommend him immediately to do so; if it be winter, I should advise him also to take to flannel drawers. The feet must be carefully attended to; they ought to be kept both warm and dry, the slightest dampness of either shoes or stockings should cause them to be immediately changed. If a boy, he ought to wear double-breasted waistcoats; if a girl, high dresses.

The diet must be nutritious and generous; he should be encouraged to eat plentifully of beef and mutton. There is nothing better for breakfast, where it agrees, than milk; indeed, it may be frequently made to agree by previously boiling it. Good home-brewed ale or sound porter ought, in moderation, to be taken. Wine and spirits must on no account be allowed. I caution parents in this particular, as many have an idea that wine, in such cases, is strengthening, and that rum and milk is a good thing either to cure or to prevent a cough!

If it be summer, let him be much in the open air, avoiding the evening and the night air. If it be winter, he should, unless the weather be mild for the season, keep within doors. Particular attention ought to be paid to the point the wind is in, as he should not be allowed to go out if it is either in the north, in the east, or in the northeast; the latter is more especially dangerous. If it be spring, and the weather be favorable, or summer or autumn, change of air, more especially to the south coast—to the Isle of Wight, for instance—would be desirable; indeed, in a case of spitting of blood, I know of no remedy so likely to ward off that formidable, and, generally, intractable complaint—consumption—as change of air. The beginning of the autumn is, of course, the best season for visiting the coast. It would be advisable, at the commencement of October, to send him either to Italy, to the south of France—to Mentone300—or to the mild parts of England—more especially either to Hastings, or to Torquay, or to the Isle of Wight—to winter. But remember, if he be actually in a confirmed consumption, I would not, on any account whatever, let him leave his home; as then the comforts of home will far, very far outweigh any benefit of change of air.

364. Suppose a youth to be much predisposed to a Sore-Throat, what precautions ought he to take to ward off future attacks?

He must use every morning thorough ablution of the body, beginning cautiously; that is to say, commencing with the neck one morning, then by degrees, morning after morning, sponging a larger surface, until the whole of the body be sponged. The chill at first must be taken off the water; gradually the temperature ought to be lowered until the water be quite cold, taking care to rub the body thoroughly dry with a coarse towel—a Turkish rubber being the best for the purpose.

He ought to bathe his throat externally every night and morning with lukewarm salt and water, the temperature of which must be gradually reduced until at length no warm water be added. He should gargle his throat either with barm, vinegar, and sage tea,301 or with salt and water—two teaspoonfuls of table salt dissolved in a tumbler of water. He ought to harden himself by taking plenty of exercise in the open air. He must, as much as possible, avoid either sitting or standing in a draught; if he be in one he should face it. He ought to keep his feet warm and dry. He should take as little aperient medicine as possible, avoiding especially both calomel and blue-pill. As he grows up to manhood he ought to allow his beard to grow, as such would be a natural covering for his throat: I have known great benefit to arise from this simple plan. The fashion is now to wear the beard, not to use the razor at all, and a sensible fashion I consider it to be. The finest respirator in the world is the beard. The beard is not only good for sore throats, but for weak chests. The wearing of the beard is a splendid innovation; it saves no end of trouble, is very beneficial to health, and is a great improvement “to the human face divine.”

365. Have you any remarks to make on the almost universal habit of boys and of very young men smoking?

I am not now called upon to give an opinion of the effects of tobacco smoking on the middle-aged and on the aged. I am addressing a mother as to the desirability of her sons, when boys, being allowed to smoke. I consider tobacco smoking one of the most injurious and deadly habits a boy or a young man can indulge in. It contracts the chest and weakens the lungs, thus predisposing to consumption. It impairs the stomach, thus producing indigestion. It debilitates the brain and nervous system, thus inducing epileptic fits and nervous depression. It stunts the growth, and is one cause of the present race of pigmies. It makes the young lazy and disinclined for work. It is one of the greatest curses of the present day. The following cases prove, more than any argument can prove, the dangerous and deplorable effects of a boy smoking. I copy the first case from Public Opinion.302 “The France mentions the following fact as a proof of the evil consequences of smoking for boys: ‘A pupil in one of the colleges, only twelve years of age, was some time since seized with epileptic fits, which became worse and worse in spite of all the remedies employed. At last it was discovered that the lad had been for two years past secretly indulging in the weed. Effectual means were adopted to prevent his obtaining tobacco, and he soon recovered.’”

The other case occurred about five years ago, in my own practice. The patient was a youth of nineteen. He was an inveterate smoker. From being a bright, intelligent lad, he was becoming idiotic, and epileptic fits were supervening. I painted to him, in vivid colors, the horrors of his case, and assured him that if he still persisted in his bad practices, he would soon become a driveling idiot! I at length, after some trouble and contention, prevailed upon him to desist from smoking altogether. He rapidly lost all epileptic symptoms, his face soon resumed its wonted intelligence, and his mind asserted its former power. He remains well to this day, and is now a married man with a family.

366. What are the best methods to restrain a violent Bleeding from the Nose?

Do not interfere with a bleeding from the nose unless it be violent. A bleeding from the nose is frequently an effort of Nature to relieve itself, and therefore, unless it be likely to weaken the patient, ought not to be restrained. If it be necessary to restrain the bleeding, press firmly for a few minutes the nose between the finger and the thumb—this alone will often stop the bleeding; if it should not, then try what bathing the nose and the forehead and the nape of the neck with water quite cold from the pump will do. If that does not succeed, try the old-fashioned remedy of putting a cold large door-key down the back. If these plans fail, try the effects either of powdered alum or of powdered matico, used after the fashion of snuff—a pinch or two, either of the one or the other, or of both, should be sniffed up the bleeding nostril. If these should not answer the purpose, although they almost invariably will, apply a large lump of ice to the nape of the neck, and put a small piece of ice into the patient’s mouth for him to suck.

If these methods do not succeed, plunge the hand and the forearm into cold water, keep them in for a few minutes, then take them out, and either hold or let be held up the arms and hands high above the head; this plan has frequently succeeded when others have failed. Let the room be kept cool, throw open the windows, and do not have many in the room to crowd around the patient.

Doubtless, Dr. Richardson’s local anæsthetic—the ether spray—playing from a few seconds to a minute on the nose and up the bleeding nostril, would act most beneficially in a severe case of this kind, and would, before resorting to the disagreeable operation of plugging the nose, deserve a trial. I respectfully submit this suggestion to my medical brethren. The ether—rectified ether—used for the spray ought to be perfectly pure, and of the specific gravity of 0.723.

If the above treatment does not soon succeed, send for a medical man, as more active means, such as plugging of the nostrils—which is not done unless in extreme cases—might be necessary.

But before plugging of the nose is resorted to, it will be well to try the effects of a cold solution of alum:

Take of—Powdered Alum, one drachm;
        Water, half a pint:

To make a Lotion.

A little of the lotion should be put into the palm of the hand and sniffed up the bleeding nostril; or, if that does not succeed, some of the lotion ought, by means of a syringe, to be syringed up the nose.

367. In case of a young lady Fainting, what had better be done?

Lay her flat upon her back, taking care that the head be as low as or lower than the body; throw open the windows; do not crowd around her;303 unloosen her dress as quickly as possible; ascertain if she have been guilty of tight lacing, for fainting is sometimes produced by that reprehensible practice. Apply smelling-salts to her nostrils; if they be not at hand, burn a piece of rag under her nose; dash cold water upon her face; throw open the window; fan her; and do not, as is generally done, crowd round her, and thus prevent a free circulation of air.

As soon as she can swallow, give her either a draught of cold water, or a glass of wine, or a teaspoonful of sal-volatile in a wineglassful of water.

To prevent fainting for the future.—I would recommend early hours; country air and exercise; the stays, if worn at all, to be worn slack; attention to diet; avoidance of wine, beer, spirits, excitement, and fashionable amusements.

Sometimes the cause of a young lady fainting is either a disordered stomach or a constipated state of the bowels.

If the fainting have been caused by disordered stomach, it may be necessary to stop the supplies, and give the stomach, for a day or two, but little to do; a fast will frequently prevent the necessity of giving medicine. Of course, if the stomach be much disordered, it will be desirable to consult a medical man.

If your daughter’s fainting have originated from a costive state of the bowels (another frequent cause of fainting), I beg to refer you to a subsequent Conversation, in which I will give you a list of remedies for the prevention and the treatment of constipation.

A young lady’s fainting occasionally arises from debility—from downright weakness of the constitution; then the best remedies will be change of air to the coast, good nourishing diet, and the following strengthening mixture:

Take of—Muriated Tincture of Iron, one drachm and a half;
        Tincture of Calumba, six drachms;
        Distilled Water, seven ounces.

Two tablespoonfuls of this mixture to be taken three times a day.

Or, for a change, the following:

Take of—Wine of Iron, one ounce and a half;
        Distilled Water, six ounces and a half:

To make a Mixture. Two tablespoonfuls to be taken three times a day.

Iron medicines ought always to be taken after instead of before a meal. The best times of the day for taking either of the above mixtures will be eleven o’clock, four o’clock, and seven o’clock.

368. You had a great objection to a mother administering calomel either to an infant or to a child, have you the same objection to a boy or a girl taking it when he or she requires an aperient?

Equally as great. It is my firm belief that the frequent use, or rather the abuse, of calomel and of other preparations of mercury, is often a source of liver disease, and an exciter of scrofula. It is a medicine of great value in some diseases, when given by a judicious medical man; but, at the same time, it is a drug of great danger when either given indiscriminately, or when too often prescribed. I will grant that in liver diseases it frequently gives temporary relief; but when a patient has once commenced the regular use of it, he cannot do without it, until, at length, the functional ends in organic disease of the liver. The use of calomel predisposes to cold, and thus frequently brings on either inflammation or consumption. Family aperient pills ought never to contain, in any form whatever, a particle of mercury.

369. Will you give me a list of remedies for the prevention and for the cure of Constipation?

If you find it necessary to give to your son or to your daughter aperient medicine, the mildest ought to be selected; for instance, an agreeable and an effectual one is an electuary composed of the following ingredients:

Take of—Best picked Alexandria Senna, one ounce;
        Best Figs, two ounces;
        Best Raisins (stoned), two ounces:

All chopped very fine. The size of a nutmeg or two to be occasionally eaten.

Or, one or two teaspoonfuls of compound confection of senna (lenitive electuary) may occasionally, early in the morning, be taken. Or, for a change, a teaspoonful of Henry’s magnesia, in half a tumblerful of warm water. If this should not be sufficiently active, a teaspoonful of Epsom salts should be given with the magnesia. A Seidlitz powder forms another safe and mild aperient; or one or two compound rhubarb pills may be given at bedtime. The following prescription for a pill, where an aperient is absolutely necessary, is a mild, gentle, and effective one for the purpose:

Take of—Extract of Socotrine Aloes, eight grains;
        Compound Extract of Colocynth, forty-eight grains:
        Hard Soap, twenty-four grains;
        Treacle, a sufficient quantity:

To make twenty-four Pills. One or two to be taken at bedtime occasionally.

But, after all, the best opening medicines are—cold ablutions every morning of the whole body; attention to diet; variety of food; bran-bread; grapes; stewed prunes;304 French plums; Muscatel raisins; figs; fruit both cooked and raw—if it be ripe and sound; oatmeal porridge; lentil powder, in the form of Du Barry’s Arabica Revalenta; vegetables of all kinds, especially spinach; exercise in the open air; early rising; daily visiting the water-closet at a certain hour—there is nothing keeps the bowels open so regularly and well as establishing the habit of visiting the water-closet at a certain hour every morning; and the other rules of health specified in these Conversations. If more attention were paid to these points, poor school-boys and school-girls would not be compelled to swallow such nauseous and disgusting messes as they usually are.

Should these plans not succeed (although in the majority of cases, with patience and perseverance, they will), I would advise an enema once or twice a week, either simply of warm water, or of one made of gruel, table salt, and olive oil, in the proportion of two tablespoonfuls of salt, two of oil, and a pint of warm gruel, which a boy may administer to himself, or a girl to herself, by means of a proper enema apparatus.

Hydropathy is oftentimes very serviceable in preventing and in curing costiveness; and as it will sometimes prevent the necessity of administering medicine, it is both a boon and a blessing. “Hydropathy also supplies us with various remedies for constipation. From the simple glass of cold water, taken early in the morning, to the various douches and sea-baths, a long list of useful appliances might be made out, among which we may mention the ‘wet compresses’ worn for three hours over the abdomen [bowels], with a gutta-percha covering.”305

I have here a word or two to say to a mother who is always physicking her family. It is an unnatural thing to be constantly dosing either a child or any one else with medicine. One would suppose that some people were only sent into the world to be physicked! If more care were paid to the rules of health, very little medicine would be required! This is a bold assertion; but I am confident that it is a true one. It is a strange admission for a medical man to make, but, nevertheless, my convictions compel me to avow it.

370. What is the reason girls are so subject to Costiveness?

The principal reason why girls suffer more from costiveness than boys, is that their habits are more sedentary; as the best opening medicines in the world are an abundance of exercise, of muscular exertion, and of fresh air.

Unfortunately, poor girls in this enlightened age must be engaged, sitting all the while, several hours every day at fancy work, the piano, and other accomplishments, they, consequently, have little time for exercise of any kind. The bowels, as a matter of course, become constipated; they are, therefore, dosed with pills, with black draughts, with brimstone and treacle—oh! the abomination!—and with medicines of that class, almost ad infinitum. What is the consequence? Opening medicines, by constant repetition, lose their effects, and, therefore, require to be made stronger and still stronger, until at length the strongest will scarcely act at all, and the poor unfortunate girl, when she becomes a woman, if she ever does become one, is spiritless, heavy, dull, and listless, requiring daily doses of physic, until she almost lives on medicine!

All this misery and wretchedness proceed from Nature’s laws having been set at defiance, from artificial means taking the place of natural ones—from a mother adopting as her rule and guide fashion and folly, rather than reason and common sense. When will a mother awake from her folly and stupidity? This is strong language to address to a lady; but it is not stronger than the subject demands.

Mothers of England! do, let me entreat you, ponder well upon what I have said. Do rescue your girls from the bondage of fashion and folly, which is worse than the bondage of the Egyptian task-masters; for the Israelites did, in making bricks without straw, work in the open air—“So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw;”306 but your girls, many of them at least, have no work, either in the house or in the open air—they have no exercise whatever. They are poor, drawling, dawdling, miserable nonentities, with muscles, for the want of proper exercise, like ribbons; and with faces, for the lack of fresh air, as white as a sheet of paper. What a host of charming girls are yearly sacrificed at the shrine of fashion and of folly!

Another, and a frequent cause of costiveness, is the bad habit of disobeying the call of having the bowels opened. The moment there is the slightest inclination to relieve the bowels, instantly ought it to be attended to, or serious results will follow. Let me urge a mother to instill into her daughter’s mind the importance of this advice.

371. Young people are subject to Pimples on the Face, what is the remedy?

These hard red pimples (acne) are a common and an obstinate affection of the skin, principally affecting the forehead, the temples, the nose, and the cheeks; occasionally attacking the neck, the shoulders, the back, and the chest; and as they more frequently affect the young, from the age of 15 to 35, and are disfiguring, they cause much annoyance. “These pimples are so well known by most persons as scarcely to need description; they are conical, red, and hard; after awhile, they become white, and yellow at the point, then discharge a thick yellow-colored matter, mingled with a whitish substance, and become covered by a hard, brown scab, and lastly, disappear very slowly, sometimes very imperfectly, and often leaving an ugly scar behind them. To these symptoms are not unfrequently added considerable pain, and always much unsightliness. When these little cones have the black head of a ‘grub’ at their point, they constitute the variety termed spotted acne. These latter often remain stationary for months, without increasing or becoming red; but when they inflame, they are nowise different in their course from the common kind.”307

I find, in these cases, great benefit to be derived from bathing the face, night and morning, with strong salt and water—a tablespoonful of table salt to a teacupful of water; by paying attention to the bowels; by living on plain, wholesome, nourishing food; and by taking a great deal of out-door exercise. Sea bathing, in these cases, is often very beneficial. Grubs and worms have a mortal antipathy to salt.

372. What is the cause of a Gum-boil?

A decayed root of a tooth, which causes inflammation and abscess of the gum, which abscess breaks, and thus becomes a gum-boil.

373. What is the treatment of a Gum-boil?

Foment the outside of the face with a hot chamomile and poppy-head fomentation,308 and apply to the gum-boil, between the cheek and the gum, a small white-bread and milk poultice,309 which renew frequently.

As soon as the gum-boil has become quiet, by all means have the affected tooth extracted, or it might cause disease, and consequently serious injury of the jaw; and whenever the patient catches cold there will be a renewal of the inflammation, of the abscess, and of the gum-boil, and, as a matter of course, renewed pain, trouble, and annoyance. Moreover, decayed fangs of teeth often cause the breath to be offensive.

374. What is the best remedy for a Corn?

The best remedy for a hard corn is to remove it. The usual method of cutting, or of paring a corn away, is erroneous. The following is the right way: Cut with a sharp pair of pointed scissors around the circumference of the corn. Work gradually round and round and toward the center. When you have for some considerable distance well loosened the edges, you can either with your finger or with a pair of forceps generally remove the corn bodily, and that with little pain and without the loss of any blood.

If the corn be properly and wholly removed, it will leave a small cavity or round hole in the center, where the blood-vessels and the nerve of the corn—vulgarly called the root—really were, and which, in point of fact, constituted the very existence or the essence of the corn. Moreover, if the corn be entirely removed, you will, without giving yourself the slightest pain, be able to squeeze the part affected between your finger and thumb.

Hard corns on the sole of the foot and on the sides of the foot are best treated by filing—by filing them with a sharp cutting file (flat on one side and convex on the other), neither too coarse nor too fine in the cutting. The corn ought, once every day, to be filed, and should daily be continued until you experience a slight pain, which tells you that the end of the corn is approaching. Many cases of hard corn, that have resisted every other plan of treatment, have been entirely cured by means of the file. One great advantage of the file is, it cannot possibly do any harm, and may be used by a timid person, by one who would not readily submit to any cutting instrument being applied to the corn.

The file, if properly used, is an effectual remedy for a hard corn on the sole of the foot. I myself have seen the value of it in several cases, particularly in one case, that of an old gentleman of ninety-five, who had had a corn on the sole of his foot for upwards of half a century, and which had resisted numerous, indeed, almost innumerable remedies; at length I recommended the file, and after a few applications entire relief was obtained, and the corn was completely eradicated.

The corns between the toes are called soft corns. A soft corn is quickly removed by the strong acetic acid—acid. acetic. fort.—which ought to be applied to the corn every night by means of a camel’s-hair brush. The toes should be kept asunder for a few minutes, in order that the acid may soak in; then apply between the toes a small piece of cotton wool.

Hard corns, then, on the sole and on the side of the foot, are best treated by the file; hard corns on the toes by the scissors; and soft corns between the toes by the strong acetic acid.

In the generality of cases the plans recommended above, if properly performed, will effect a cure; but if the corn, from pressure or from any other cause, should return, remove it again and proceed as before directed. If the corn have been caused either by tight or by ill-fitting shoes, the only way to prevent a recurrence is, of course, to have the shoes properly made by a clever shoemaker—by one who thoroughly understands his business, and who will have a pair of lasts made purposely for the feet.310

The German method of making boots and shoes is a capital one for the prevention of corns, as the boots and shoes are made scientifically, to fit a real and not an ideal foot.

One of the best preventives of, as well as of the best remedies for corns, especially of soft corns between the toes, is washing the feet every morning, as recommended in a previous Conversation,311 taking especial care to wash with the thumb, and afterward to wipe with the towel between each toe.

375. What is the best remedy to destroy a Wart?

Pure nitric acid,312 carefully applied to the wart by means of a small stick of cedar wood, a camel’s-hair pencil-holder, every other day, will soon destroy it. Care must be taken that the acid does not touch the healthy skin, or it will act as a caustic to it.

The nitric acid should be preserved in a stoppered bottle, and must be put out of the reach of children.

376. What is the best remedy for Tender Feet, for Sweaty Feet, and for Smelling Feet?

Cold water: bathing the feet in cold water, beginning with tepid water; but gradually from day to day reducing the warm until the water be quite cold. A large nursery-basin, one-third full of water, ought to be placed on the floor, and one foot at a time should be put in the water, washing the while with a sponge the foot, and with the thumb between each toe. Each foot should remain in the water about half a minute. The feet ought after each washing to be well dried, taking care to dry with the towel between each toe. The above process must be repeated at least once every day, every morning, and, if the annoyance be great, every night as well. A clean pair of stockings ought in these cases to be put on daily, as perfect cleanliness is absolutely necessary both to afford relief and to effect a cure.

If the feet be tender, or if there be either bunions or corns, the shoes and the boots made according to the German method (which are fashioned according to the actual shape of the foot) should alone be worn.

377. What are the causes of so many young ladies of the present day being weak, nervous, and unhappy?

The principal causes are—ignorance of the laws of health, Nature’s laws being set at naught by fashion and by folly, by want of fresh air and exercise, by want of occupation, and by want of self-reliance. Weak, nervous, and unhappy! Well they might be! What have they to make them strong and happy? Have they work to do to brace the muscles? Have they occupation—useful, active occupation—to make them happy? No! they have neither the one nor the other!

378. What diseases are girls most subject to?

The diseases peculiar to girls are—Chlorosis, Greensickness, and Hysterics.

379. What are the usual causes of Chlorosis?

Chlorosis is caused by torpor and debility of the whole frame, especially of the womb. It is generally produced by scanty or by improper food, by the want of air and exercise, and by too close application within doors. Here we have the same tale over again—close application within doors, and the want of fresh air and exercise! When will the eyes of a mother be opened to this important subject?—the most important that can engage her attention!

380. What is the usual age for Chlorosis to occur, and what are the symptoms?

Chlorosis more frequently attacks girls from fifteen to twenty years of age; although unmarried women, much older, occasionally have it. I say unmarried, for, as a rule, it is a complaint of the single.

The patient, first of all, complains of being languid, tired, and out of spirits; she is fatigued with the slightest exertion; she has usually palpitation of the heart (so as to make her fancy that she has a disease of that organ, which, in all probability, she has not); she has shortness of breath, and a short dry cough; her face is flabby and pale; her complexion gradually assumes a yellowish or greenish hue—hence the name of chlorosis; there is a dark, livid circle around her eyes; her lips lose their color, and become almost white; her tongue is generally white and pasty; her appetite is bad, and is frequently depraved—the patient often preferring chalk, slate-pencil, cinder, and even dirt, to the daintiest food; indigestion frequently attends chlorosis; she has usually pains over the short-ribs, on the left side; she suffers greatly from “wind,” and is frequently nearly choked by it; her bowels are generally costive, and the stools are unhealthy; she has pains in her hips, loins, and back; and her feet and ankles are oftentimes swollen. The menstrual discharge is either suspended, or very partially performed; if the latter, it is usually almost colorless. Hysterical fits not unfrequently occur during an attack of chlorosis.

381. How may Chlorosis be prevented?

If health were more and fashion were less studied, chlorosis would not be such a frequent complaint. This disease generally takes its rise from mismanagement—from Nature’s laws having been set at defiance. I have heard a silly mother express an opinion that it is not genteel for a girl to eat heartily! Such language is perfectly absurd and cruel. How often, too, a weak mother declares that a healthy, blooming girl looks like a milkmaid! It would be well if she did! How true and sad it is, that “a pale, delicate face, and clear eyes, indicative of consumption, are the fashionable desiderata at present for complexion.”313

A growing girl requires plenty of good nourishment—as much as her appetite demands; and if she have it not, she will become either chlorotic, or consumptive, or delicate. Besides, the greatest beautifier in the world is health; therefore, by a mother studying the health of her daughter, she will, at the same time, adorn her body with beauty! I am sorry to say that too many parents think more of the beauty than of the health of their girls. Sad and lamentable infatuation! Nathaniel Hawthorne gives a graphic description of a delicate young lady. He says: “She is one of those delicate, nervous young creatures not uncommon in New England, and whom I suppose to have become what we find them by the gradually refining away of the physical system among young women. Some philosophers choose to glorify this habit of body by terming it spiritual; but, in my opinion, it is rather the effect of unwholesome food, bad air, lack of out-door exercise, and neglect of bathing, on the part of these damsels and their female progenitors, all resulting in a kind of hereditary dyspepsia.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a distinguished American, was right. Such ladies, when he wrote, were not uncommon; but within the last two or three years, to their great credit be it spoken, “a change has come o’er the spirit of their dreams,” and they are wonderfully improved in health; for, with all reverence be it spoken, “God helps them who help themselves,” and they have helped themselves by attending to the rules of health: “The women of America are growing more and more handsome every year for just this reason. They are growing rounder of chest, fuller of limb, gaining substance and development in every direction. Whatever may be urged to the contrary, we believe this to be a demonstrable fact.... When the rising generation of American girls once begin to wear thick shoes, to take much exercise in the open air, to skate, to play croquet, and to affect the saddle, it not only begins to grow more wise but more healthful, and—which must follow as the night the day—more beautiful.”314

If a young girl had plenty of wholesome meat, varied from day to day, either plain roast or boiled, and neither stewed, nor hashed, nor highly seasoned, for her stomach; if she had an abundance of fresh air for her lungs; if she had plenty of active exercise, such as skipping, dancing, running, riding, swimming, for her muscles; if her clothing were warm and loose, and adapted to the season; if her mind were more occupied with active, useful occupation, such as household work, than at present, and if she were kept calm and untroubled from the hurly-burly and excitement of fashionable life,—chlorosis would almost be an unknown disease. It is a complaint of rare occurrence with country girls, but of great frequency with fine city ladies.

382. What treatment should you advise?

The treatment which would prevent should be adopted when the complaint first makes its appearance. If the above means do not quickly remove it, the mother must then apply to a medical man, and he will give medicines which will soon have the desired effect. If the disease be allowed for any length of time to run on, it might produce either organic—incurable—disease of the heart, or consumption, or indigestion, or confirmed ill health.

383. At what period of life is a lady most prone to Hysterics, and what are the symptoms?

The time of life when hysterics occur is generally from the age of fifteen to fifty. Hysterics come on by paroxysms—hence they are called hysterical fits. A patient, just before an attack, is low spirited; crying without a cause; she is “nervous,” as it is called; she has flushings of the face; she is at other times very pale; she has shortness of breath and occasional palpitations of the heart; her appetite is usually bad; she passes quantities of colorless limpid urine, having the appearance of pump-water; she is much troubled with flatulence in her bowels, and, in consequence, she feels bloated and uncomfortable. The “wind” at length rises upward toward the stomach, and still upward to the throat, giving her the sensation of a ball stopping her breathing, and producing a feeling of suffocation. The sensation of a ball in the throat (globus hystericus) is the commencement of the fit.

She now becomes partially insensible, although she seldom loses complete consciousness. Her face becomes flushed, her nostrils dilated, her head thrown back, and her stomach and bowels enormously distended with “wind.” After a short time she throws her arms and legs about convulsively, she beats her breast, tears her hair and clothes, laughs boisterously, and screams violently; at other times she makes a peculiar noise; sometimes she sobs, and her face is much distorted. At length she brings up enormous quantities of wind; after a time, she bursts into a violent flood of tears, and then gradually comes to herself.

As soon as the fit is at an end she generally passes enormous quantities of colorless limpid urine. She might, in a short time, fall into another attack similar to the above. When she comes to herself she feels exhausted and tired, and usually complains of slight headache, and of great soreness of the body and limbs. She seldom remembers what has occurred during the fit. Hysterics are sometimes frightful to witness; but, in themselves, are not at all dangerous.

384. What are the causes of Hysterics?

Delicate health, chlorosis, improper and not sufficiently nourishing food, grief, anxiety, excitement of the mind, closely confined rooms, want of exercise, indigestion, flatulence, and tight lacing are the causes which usually produce hysterics. Hysterics are frequently feigned; indeed, oftener than any other complaint; and even a genuine case is usually much aggravated by a patient herself giving way to them.

385. What do you recommend an Hysterical lady to do?

To improve her health by proper management; to rise early and to take a walk, that she may breathe pure and wholesome air,—indeed, she ought to live nearly half her time in the open air, exercising herself with walking, skipping, etc.; to employ her mind with botany, croquet, archery, or with any other out-door amusement; to confine herself to plain, wholesome, nourishing food; to avoid tight lacing; to eschew fashionable amusements; and, above all, not to give way to her feelings, but if she feel an attack approaching, to rouse herself.

If the fit be upon her, the better plan is to banish all the male sex from the room, and not even to have many women about her, and for those around to loosen her dress; to lay her in the center of the room, flat upon the ground, with a pillow under her head; to remove combs and pins and brooches from her person; to dash cold water upon her face; to apply cloths, or a large sponge wetted in cold water, to her head; to throw open the window, and then to leave her to herself; or, at all events, to leave her with only one female friend or attendant. If such be done, she will soon come round; but what is the usual practice? If a girl be in hysterics, the whole house, and perhaps the neighborhood, is roused; the room is crowded to suffocation; fears are openly expressed by those around that she is in a dangerous state; she hears what they say, and her hysterics are increased tenfold.

---

If this book is to be of use to mothers and to the rising generation, as I humbly hope and trust that it has been, and that it will be still more abundantly, it ought not to be listlessly read, merely as a novel, or as any other piece of fiction, but it must be thoughtfully and carefully studied, until its contents, in all its bearings, be completely mastered and understood.

In conclusion, I beg to thank you for the courtesy, confidence, and attention I have received at your hands, and to express a hope that my advice, through God’s blessing, may not have been given in vain.

Notes

1. Shakspeare.

2. Martial.

3. The Nurse; a Poem. Translated from the Italian of Luigi Tansillo by William Roscoe.

4. Good Words, July, 1862.

5. Emerson.

6. Douglas Jerrold.

7. Shakspeare.

8. Chesterfield.

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

10. “The whole world around us, and the whole world within us, are ruled by law.”—The Duke of Argyle, Good Words, January, 1865.

11. The Family Friend, vol. i. London: Houlston & Stoneman.

12. “The indulgences and vices of prosperity are far more fatal than the privations entailed by any English form of distress.”—The Times, Feb. 3d, 1868.

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

14. Which may be procured of any respectable ironmonger.

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.

17. Armstrong.

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.”

20. Armstrong.

21. Armstrong.

22. Milton.

23. Longfellow.

24. Coleridge.

25. Byron.

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.

31. Cowper.

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.

34. Longfellow.

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.

36. Cowper.

37. Tennyson.

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.

41. Byron.

42. Sir Egerton Brydges.

43. Dr. Grosvenor.

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.”

48. De Quincey.

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.)

54. Dr. Denman.

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.

57. Burton.

58. Abernethy.

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.

73. See page 166.

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.

94. Dryden.

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.

101. Shakspeare.

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.

116. Wordsworth.

117. Prior.

118. Milton.

119. Fenton.

120. Burton.

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.

132. Tupper.

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.

136. In one case related by Koop (Journ. de Pharm., xx. 603), a child was destroyed by it.

137. 2 Kings, v. 13, 14.

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.

172. Take of—Tincture of aloes, half an ounce;
        Soap liniment, one ounce:

Make a liniment.

173. Sir Charles Locock, in a Letter to the Author.

174. Take of—Powdered Turkey Rhubarb, half a scruple;
        Carbonate of Magnesia, one scruple;
        Simple Syrup, three drachms;
        Dill Water, eight drachms:

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.

176. For a rhubarb and magnesia mixture prescription, see page 1099 (note).

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.

184. See Infancy—Ablution, page 1016.

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.

224. See page 1210.

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.

228. See page 1221.

229. See page 1210.

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!

233. For the prescription of the acidulated infusion of roses with syrup, see page 1221.

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.

239. See page 1221.

240. For the prescription of the ipecacuanha wine mixture, see page 1210.

241. For the treatment of bronchitis, see page 1214.

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.

248. See page 1094.

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. Take of—Spirits of Turpentine, three drachms;
        Camphorated Oil, nine drachms:

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.

270. If there be no other lard in the house but lard with salt, the salt may be readily removed by washing the lard in cold water. Prepared lard—that is to say, lard without salt—can, at any moment, be procured from the nearest druggist in the neighborhood.

271. See the Lancet for October 10th, 17th, and 24th, 1840.

272. A stick of pointed nitrate of silver, in a case, ready for use, may be procured of any respectable chemist.

273. Which may be instantly procured of a druggist, as he always keeps it ready prepared.

274. A Bee-master. The Times, July 28, 1864.

275. Shaw’s Medical Remembrancer, by Hutchinson.

276. A tepid bath from 62 to 96 degrees of Fahrenheit.

277. A warm bath from 97 to 100 degrees of Fahrenheit.

278. Health. By John Brown, M.D. Edinburgh: Alexander Strahan & Co.

279. Several years ago, while prosecuting my anatomical studies in London University College Dissecting-rooms, on opening a young woman, I discovered an immense indentation of the liver large enough to admit a rolling-pin, entirely produced by tight lacing!

280. Dryden.

281. Sir W. Temple.

282. Goldsmith’s Essays.

283. Geoffry Hamlyn. By H. Kingsley.

284. Proverbs, xx. 29.

285. “I would have given him, Captain Fleming, had he been my son,” quoth old Pearson the elder, “such a good sound drubbing as he never would have forgotten—never!”
“Pooh! pooh! my good sir. Don’t tell me. Never saw flogging in the navy do good. Kept down brutes; never made a man yet.”—Dr. Norman Macleod in Good Words, May, 1861.

286. The Birmingham Journal.

287. A Woman’s Thoughts about Women.

288. If a girl has an abundance of good nourishment, the school-mistress must, of course, be remunerated for the necessary and costly expense; and how this can be done on the paltry sum charged at cheap boarding-schools? It is utterly impossible! The school-mistress will live, even if the girls be half-starved. And what are we to expect from poor and insufficient nourishment to a fast-growing girl, and at the time of life, remember, when she requires an extra quantity of good sustaining, supporting food? A poor girl, from such treatment, becomes either consumptive or broken down in constitution, and from which she never recovers, but drags out a miserable existence. A cheap boarding-school is dear at any price.

289. A horse-hair mattress should always be preferred to a feather bed. It is not only better for the health, but it improves the figure.

290. Spare Hours. By John Brown, M.D., F.R.S.E.

291. Household Verses on Health and Happiness. London: Jarrold and Sons.

292. Hurdis’s Village Curate.

293. Shakspeare.

294. Todd’s Student’s Guide.

295. Sir Astley Cooper’s Lectures on Scrofula.

296. I. Chronicles, xxi. 13.

297. A. K. H. B., Fraser’s Magazine, October, 1861.

298. Shakspeare.

299. The Times, May 16, 1867.

300. Winter in the South of Europe. By J. Henry Bennett. Third Edition. London: Churchill and Sons, 1865.

301. A wineglassful of barm, a wineglassful of vinegar, and the remaining sage tea, to make a half-pint bottle of gargle.

302. December 10, 1864.

303. Shakspeare knew the great importance of not crowding around a patient who has fainted. He says:
“So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons;
Come all to help him, and so stop the air
By which he should revive.”
          Measure for Measure, Act ii. sc. 4.

304. For the best way of stewing prunes, see page 1258.

305. Professor Trousseau in Medical Circular, Feb. 5, 1862.

306. Exodus, v. 12.

307. Wilson on Healthy Skin.

308. Four poppy-heads and four ounces of chamomile blows to be boiled in four pints of water for half an hour, and then to be strained to make the fomentation.

309. Cut a piece of bread, about the size of the little finger—without breaking it into crumb—pour boiling hot milk upon it, cover it over, and let it stand for five minutes, then apply the soaked bread over the gum-boil, letting it rest between the cheek and the gum.

310. As long as fashion, instead of common sense, is followed in the making of both boots and shoes, men and women will as a matter of course suffer from corns.
It has often struck me as singular, when all the professions and trades are so overstocked, that there should be, as there is in every large town, such a want of chiropodists (corn-cutters)—of respectable chiropodists—of men who would charge a fixed sum for every visit the patient may make; for instance, to every working-man a shilling, and to every gentleman half a crown or five shillings for each sitting, and not for each corn (which latter system is a most unsatisfactory way of doing business). I am quite sure that if such a plan were adopted, every town of any size in the kingdom would employ regularly one chiropodist at least. However we might dislike some few of the American customs, we may copy them with advantage in this particular—namely, in having a regular staff of chiropodists both in civil and in military life.

311. Youth—Ablution, page 1321.

312. A very small quantity of pure nitric acid—just a drain at the bottom of a stoppered bottle—is all that is needed, and which may be procured of a chemist.

313. Dublin University Magazine.

314. The Round Table.

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Reindexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter.

Renumbered pages “Advice to a Mother” by adding 1000.