No. 80.]

Management of Infants.

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benevolence, and piety; by great sweetness and equanimity of temperby cheerfulness and gentleness of manners-and by an ardent thirst after knowledge, joined to the freest disposition to impart it. It is perhaps superfluous to add, that he was a delightful companion, and that in the more endearing relations of son, of husband, of father, and of friend, he possessed those excellencies which almost necessarily result from a combination of virtuous and agreeable qualities."

MANAGEMENT OF INFANTS.-Mr. Henry Thompson, a scientific and experienced surgeon, of Enfield, in Middlesex, has lately published a very useful work on this important subject, under the title of the "Nursery Guide; or Remarks on the conduct of a Nursery: containing such information as is likely to prove useful to parents."

One great object of this tract is to impress on the mind of the mother the absolute necessity of having recourse to the advice of a skilful practitioner on the first appearance of indisposition in her infant. All the diseases of infants are of an acute nature, and to combat them successfully, proper means should be speedily employed. By employing the simple remedies of nurses, or the more pernicious ones, the nostrums of quacks, many lives are no doubt lost which might have been saved, had proper remedies been administered on the onset of the malady. By recommending an application for professional assistance, Mr. Thompson wishes his readers not to suppose that he is influenced by any mercenary motive, but that his real wish is to prevent the accumulation of diseases and of expense, which inevitably follow the neglect of a malady on its first attack. "Too often, indeed," observes Mr. Thompson, "is it the case that we are sent for but as a dernier resort, when the long catalogue of domestic and homespun remedies have been uselessly employed, or have ceased to do harm,-when our means, which might (if sought earlier) have been of service, prove now but additional torments; and we are forced reluctantly to behold the parting gasp of the miserable sufferer; to be silent and mournful spectators of an untimely end; to lament, with a tear of pity, the frailty of human nature; and, commending that patience under suffering, so hard to be attained, thus quit the distressing scene."

We have selected the following articles, as fair specimens of Mr. Thompson's work.

"Wet-Nurse.

"But, should misfortune be, alas! her lot,

Should death have robb'd her of her infant's smiles,-
Then may'st thou safely give to her thine own,

To rear and cherish with a mother's care.

But first especial caution take to learn
The health and manners of the nurse you hire;
Since, from neglect of this well-meant advice,
Such ills arise as render medicine's aid

Through life compulsatory. Rather choose
One whose look bespeaks an even temper,*

"Good temper, for many reasons, should be a main point in a wet-nurse; since the effects which passion has upon the health (of women suckling especially), will produce mischief to the infant, by affecting its bowels through the medium of the milk."

And whose cheek, blushing with Nature's bloom,
Gives her fair claim to seek thy service.
When once she's thine, her real good promote:
Let her have treatment in thy family
Befitting of her station; think her thou
Thy second self, in matters which relate
To nutriment; heed not her clothing less,+
Than in such situation thou would'st have
That others heeded thine; decent but warm,
Conveying heat nutritious to her veins,
That thus she may impart it to thy child."
"Flatulency.

"The frequent pains which infants feel from wind,
Are by those evils heretofore remark'd,

Of faulty diet caused; and not, as oft

The misled nurse describes, from acid, bile,
Or such like nonsense, in her brain alone.
Children are seldom born with a disease;
But as we envied thus their happy lot,
We early seek to make them share, forsooth,
By every art, those we ourselves possess:
And not unfrequent do the writhing forms
Of anguish'd limbs, in attitudes of pain,

Spring from our senseless selves; whilst eructations
And countenance descriptive of distress,

In pity make us feel those ills our own,
When we can feel for any thing but self."‡

"I particularly wish to be understood as reprobating the drudgery which many persons compel their wet-nurses to perform. The situation of a wet-nurse should be regulated with much care; neither feeding her scantily nor grossly; neither over-working her, nor permitting her to be wholly idle. If she attends to all the wants of the infant, takes it out at proper times, and has always her little charge in view, she does all that ought to be required of her: scouring rooms, and similar labour, does not come within her province; and none but the unfeeling or necessitous would require them to perform such work."

"The nurse's clothing ought to be particularly attended to, since they are, from being generally young persons, both giddy and careless; either desirous of aping the fashions of their mistresses, (to speak plainly,) by leaving off a petticoat occasionally, or too indolent to put on an additional one when the season requires it. They also should be attended to in another way, viz. to see that they air their own clothes; it being a common custom to omit this in their hurry, and thus injure both themselves and the child. It is besides tolerably well known, that, when these flighty nurses have wasted one half of the day, they are generally in a bustle the other; and for this reason their duty should be assigned them for each part of the day, so as to avoid any one portion of it being too laborious, by intruding on the other."

"Magnesia is a very general and a very good remedy; but from its

"With speck'd appearance bland, of tiny growth,
Within the mouth is seen the aphthous crop ;
Upon the tongue, or round the ruby gums,
Sprinkled like pearls upon the crimson dye,
These little spots show their unwelcome forms,
Creating fears and dreads; which, ta'en in time,
Are soon allay'd, if proper means assist.*"

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apparent simplicity, it is very often made accessary to the production or continuance of diseases. It is usual for persons to say, on many occasions, Give a little magnesia; it is an innocent thing!' and so it is when absolutely required, but not otherwise. I will therefore explain so much of its action chemically as will, I hope, convince the reader of the folly of giving magnesia on all occasions. Magnesia acts, when taken into the stomach, chiefly by combining with any acid it may find there, and forms a neutral salt, which in itself is purgative. Thus then is it, that the magnesia is sometimes aperient; but, when none is met with, it does not so act at all: it will therefore be seen that, when only a healthy share of acid exists, it is worse than useless. It is the duty of the stomach to furnish at all times so much of this animal acid, technically termed GASTRIC JUICE, as will dissolve or decompose (to use a chemical phrase) what is fit for the purposes of life. When then, as in some diseases, it is secreted in too large a quantity, occasional doses of magnesia will be useful; but, if this medicine be given improperly, when it is not superabundant, it must follow that a quantity of the juice is applied to another purpose than what it was designed for; and thus, when food is taken into the stomach, from not meeting with its solvent, it remains an undigested mass, creating all the symptoms of that painful disease, Dyspepsia, or indigestion. The wonder, therefore, is not that so many children die within the first year, but that so many live; since we are so perpetually cramming them with one kind of poison to make them ill, and with perhaps a much worse to try to make them well. To pass from physic to food, (a natural gradation) it may be observed, that every mother or nurse who gives bread, or any thing whatever but the breast, when it can be done (as it mostly can) with safety to both parties, are, in the same proportion as they recede from the dictates of nature, approaching the crime of murder. I have already expressed this opinion before; but I voluntarily am guilty of repetition, that I may make some impression, if possible, on those who, I hope, only err from not knowing better: and that they do err, will, I think, be made to appear from what I have above advanced; for, if the juice of the stomach, at a certain age, is only fitted by the Almighty to form the human milk into nutriment, how is it possible that bread, meat, &c. can be dissolved or decomposed by it?"

That magnesia is often injurious by keeping up irritation in the bowels, or by over-purging an infant, we admit; but that it acts injuriously by neutralizing the gastric juice, we do not agree with the author, for we are satisfied that the gastric juice is not an acid.

"Although this is one of the little maladies that nurses take upon

"Dalby's Carminative.

"Now, ere I quit my subject, let me tell,
(Nor be neglectful of the caution given),
Of one vast source of infantile destruction;
A wily foe, lurking beneath a veil

Of pleasing, friendly mien; luring, it gains,
By its too-fatal charms, successive shoals
Of hapless victims to its crowded shades.
This is the fate which oft attends upon
The foolish whims of those, glad to remove,
By any means, however infamous,
The little troubles that an infant gives.
Hard is the fate of these poor innocents:
First, forced to pine on food unfit their age;
Next, to endure disease such feeding brings;
And, last of all, to suffer and to die
By the dread torments of a poison'd drug.
How oft from its effects carminative,
The little sufferer feels its pains remov'd;
How oft deceitfully are friends deceiv'd
By being witnesses to its relief,

Thus too securely placing confidence,

When death secretes him in the potent charm.*
If ye but knew the deleterious drug

That forms the basis of this vile deception,
Far worse, alas! than the disease it aims,

Or falsely is outheld, to remedy:

If ye but felt, or could anticipate,

The days, nay years, of sorrow it creates

To babes so dear to thee, thou'dst dash forthwith
The poison from thy hand. Its sad effects
Too oft I've seen; too oft had cause to curse

Th' insidious traitor to the human race.

I speak not thus to harm whose good it is
To vend this nostrum, nor because it such

themselves to remove, it would be advisable to have medical assistance, as it is not at all times a passive disease."

"The number of children that die from the improper administration of this medicine, is incalculable; for, as it in the first place allays pain, it is given by stupid old women and lazy nursery-maids on every occasion when they wish to be rid of their duty. Thus is the infant kept in a constant stupor; and I have known very many cases of this kind taken for, and treated as, water on the brain. Thus, then, do I say it is a michievous medicine, and one which ought never to be admitted into the nursery; nor should the nurse, at any time, be apprized of opium being a component part of an infant's medicine, lest she misuses the knowledge. Syrup of poppies, improperly prepared, has often produced the effect of watery head, by having opium in it."

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No. 80.]

The Medical and Chirurgical Society.

227

Is known to be; nor yet to raise upon

Its downfal med'cine's cause: No! for if known
Its dose proportion, it might useful prove

In hands more skilful than the nurses here.*"

THE MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY.-This Society, composed of fellows, licentiate and non-licentiate physicians, surgeons, surgeon-apothecaries, and esquires, has resolved in future to make a book half-yearly, of "such papers as shall have been ordered by the council" (of eleven) for publication, viz. on the first of July, and the first of February.

From the papers, which have been read and discussed in the Society since the completion of their eleventh volume, the council of eleven (physicians, surgeons, and esquires) have selected twenty, which in their opinion possess sufficient novelty and merit to justify their publication. We shall notice them in their numerical order.

Article 1st. On April 3d, 1821, Dr. Farre presented a paper from Dr. Marshall Hall, M. D., F. R. S. (author of a Treatise on a new Class of Diseases, termed Mimoses, &c. &c.) embracing "Four cases of children who had attempted, by mistake, to drink boiling water from the spout of a tea-kettle." The accidents proved fatal to three; and, on dissection, it appeared to the Doctor, that the boiling water had not been conveyed into the stomach, or entered the gullet, the glottis and larynx being only injured, producing symptoms of croup. The Doctor gives his opinion, that "the course of the boiling water was arrested by a spasmodic action of the muscles of the pharynx, and that in passing to the posterior part of the mouth it scalded the epiglottis and glottis, which became swollen, so as to shut up the orifice into the larynx, and thereby produce suffocation." Mr. Stanley, a scientific surgeon, of Bartholomew's Hospital, being present when the Doctor's paper was read, related two fatal cases of the same accident; in one of which the boiling water did enter the stomach, and produced considerable mischief in it, and also in the gullet. In the other there was only a slight redness, and tumefaction of the mucous membrane of the larynx, above the opening of the glottis. The windpipe, the gullet, and stomach, were not affected; but effusion was discovered between the membranes of the brain and in the ventricles; and the patient, on being admitted into St. Bartholomew's Hospital, exhibiting symptoms of an affection of the brain, it is probable the boiling water had little or nothing to do with his death. In the first case, Dr. Hall ordered blood to be abstracted from the jugular vein, and leeches to be applied to the front of the throat. The patient (a girl about three years old) screamed so violently on seeing the leeches, that

"This medicine is made by almost every retailing chemist and druggist in town, and is very heedlessly indeed attended to. I have seen careless apprentices, with large quantities of the bottles on a counter, putting in at random laudanum and other materials of which it is composed. As this is a medicine that very seldom ought to be given to infants, it will readily suggest itself, that too much caution cannot be bestowed in its preparation, nor too small a quantity intrusted to unskilful hands."