Part 40

There is however a certain Degree of Weakness, which may very reasonably deter us from this Washing; as when the Infant manifestly wants Heat, and needs some Cordial and frequent Frictions, to prevent its expiring from downright Feebleness; in which Circumstances Washing must be hurtful to it. Tissot.

They should be washed very regularly every Day, in every Season, and every Sort of Weather; and in the fine warm Season they should be plunged into a large Pail of Water, into the Basins around Fountains, in a Brook, a River, or a Lake.

After a few Days crying, they grow so well accustomed to this Exercise, that it becomes one of their Pleasures; so that they laugh all the Time of their going through it.

The first Benefit of this Practice is, as I have already said, the keeping up their Perspiration, and rendering them less obnoxious to the Impressions of the Air and Weather: and it is also in Consequence of this first Benefit, that they are preserved from a great Number of Maladies, especially from knotty Tumours, often called Kernels; from Obstructions; from Diseases of the Skin, and from Convulsions, its general Consequence being to insure them firm, and even robust Health.

Sec. 385. But Care should be taken not to prevent, or, as it were to undo, the Benefit this Washing procures them, by the bad Custom of keeping them too hot. There is not a more pernicious one than this, nor one that destroys more Children. They should be accustomed to light Cloathing by Day, and light Covering by Night, to go with their Heads very thinly covered, and not at all in the Day-time, after their attaining the Age of two Years. They should avoid sleeping in Chambers that are too hot, and should live in the open Air, both in Summer and Winter, as much as possible. Children who have been kept too hot in such Respects, are very often liable to Colds; they are weakly, pale, languishing, bloated and melancholy. They are subject to hard knotty Swellings, a Consumption, all Sorts of languid Disorders, and either die in their Infancy, or only grow up into a miserable valetudinary Life; while those who are washed or plunged into cold Water, and habitually exposed to the open Air, are just in the opposite Circumstances.

Sec. 386. I must further add here, that Infancy is not the only Stage of Life, in which cold Bathing is advantagious. I have advised it with remarkable Success to Persons of every Age, even to that of seventy: and there are two Kinds of Diseases, more frequent indeed in Cities than in the Country, in which cold Baths succeed very greatly; that is, in Debility, or Weakness of the Nerves; and when Perspiration is disordered, when Persons are fearful of every Breath of Air, liable to Defluxions or Colds, feeble and languishing, the cold Bath re-establishes Perspiration; restores Strength to the Nerves; and by that Means dispels all the Disorders, which arise from these two Causes, in the animal Oeconomy. They should be used before Dinner. But in the same Proportion that cold Bathing is beneficial, the habitual Use, or rather Abuse, of warm Bathing is pernicious; they dispose the Persons addicted to them to the Apoplexy; to the Dropsy; to Vapours, and to the hypochondriacal Disease: and Cities, in which they are too frequently used, become, in some Measure, desolate from such Distempers.

Of the Cutting of the Teeth.

Sec. 387. Cutting of the Teeth is often very tormenting to Children, some dying under the severe Symptoms attending it. If it proves very painful, we should during that Period, 1, Keep their Bellies open by Glysters consisting only of a simple Decoction of Mallows: but Glysters are not necessary, if the Child, as it sometimes happens then, has a Purging.

2, Their ordinary Quantity of Food should be lessened for two Reasons; first, because the Stomach is then weaker than usual; and next, because a small Fever sometimes accompanies the Cutting.

3, Their usual Quantity of Drink should be increased a little; the best for them certainly is an Infusion of the Leaves or Flowers, of the Lime or Linden-tree, to which a little Milk may be added.

4, Their Gums should frequently be rubbed with a Mixture of equal Parts of Honey, and Mucilage of Quince-seeds; and a Root of March-Mallows, or of Liquorice, may be given them to chew.

It frequently happens, that during Dentition, or the Time of their toothing, Children prove subject to Knots or Kernels.

Of Worms.

Sec. 388. The Meconium, the Acidity of the Milk, and Cutting of the Teeth are the three great Causes of the Diseases of Children. There is also a fourth, Worms, which is likewise very often pernicious to them; but which, nevertheless, is not, at least not near so much, a general Cause of their Disorders, as it is generally supposed, when a Child exceeding two Years of Age proves sick. There are a great Variety of Symptoms, which dispose People to think a Child has Worms; though there is but one that demonstrates it, which is discharging them upwards or downwards. There is great Difference among Children too in this Respect, some remaining healthy, though having several Worms, and others being really sick with a few.

They prove hurtful, 1, by obstructing the Guts, and compressing the neighbouring Bowels by their Size. 2, By sucking up the Chyle intended to nourish the Patient, and thus depriving him of his very Substance as well as Subsistence: and, 3, by irritating the Guts and even gnawing them.

I have seen a Child about three Years old, whose Navel, after swelling and inflaming, suppurated, and through a small Orifice (which must have communicated with the Cavity of the Gut or the Belly) discharged one of these Worms we call teretes, about three Inches long. He had voided several by Stool, after taking some vermifuge Medicines. The Fact I perfectly remember; and to the best of my Recollection, the Ulcer healed some Time after, and the Orifice closed: but the Child died the following Year of a putrid Fever, which might be caused, or was aggravated, by Worms. K.

Sec. 389. The Symptoms which make it probable they are infested with Worms, are slight, frequent and irregular Cholics; a great Quantity of Spittle running off while they are fasting; a disagreeable Smell of their Breath, of a particular Kind, especially in the Morning; a frequent Itchiness of their Noses which makes them scratch or rub them often; a very irregular Appetite, being sometimes voracious, and at other Times having none at all: Pains at Stomach and Vomitings: sometimes a costive Belly; but more frequently loose Stools of indigested Matter; the Belly rather larger than ordinary, the rest of the Body meagre; a Thirst which no Drink allays; often great Weakness, and some Degree of Melancholy. The Countenance has generally an odd unhealthy Look, and varies every Quarter of an Hour; the Eyes often look dull, and are surrounded with a Kind of livid Circle: the White of the Eye is sometimes visible while they sleep, their Sleep being often attended with terrifying Dreams or Deliriums, and with continual Startings, and Grindings of their Teeth. Some Children find it impossible to be at Rest for a single Moment. Their Urine is often whitish, I have seen it from some as white as Milk. They are afflicted with Palpitations, Swoonings, Convulsions, long and profound Drowsiness; cold Sweats which come on suddenly; Fevers which have the Appearances of Malignity; Obscurities and even Loss of Sight and of Speech, which continue for a considerable Time; Palsies either of their Hands, their Arms, or their Legs, and Numbnesses. Their Gums are in a bad State, and as though they had been gnawed or corroded: they have often the Hickup, a small and irregular Pulse, Ravings, and, what is one of the least doubtful Symptoms, frequently a small dry Cough; and not seldom a Mucosity or Sliminess in their Stools: sometimes very long and violent Cholics, which terminate in an Abscess on the Outside of the Belly, from whence Worms issue. (See Note p. 388.)

Sec. 390. There are a great Multitude of Medicines against Worms. The Grenette or Worm-seed, which is one of the commonest, is a very good one. The Prescription No. 62, is also a very successful one; and the Powder No. 14 is one of the best. Flower of Brimstone, the Juice of Nasturtium, or Cresses, Acids and Honey Water have often been very serviceable; but the first three I have mentioned, succeeded by a Purge, are the best. No. 63 is a purging Medicine, that the most averse and difficult Children may easily take. But when, notwithstanding these Medicines, the Worms are not expelled, it is necessary to take Advice of some Person qualified to prescribe more efficacious ones. This is of considerable Importance, because, notwithstanding a great Proportion of Children may probably have Worms, and yet many of them continue in good Health, there are, nevertheless, some who are really killed by Worms, after having been cruelly tormented by them for several Years.

This Word occurs in none of the common Dictionaries; but suspecting it for the Semen Santonici of the Shops, I find the learned Dr. Bikker has rendered it so, in his very well received Translation of this valuable Work into Low Dutch. K.

A Disposition to breed Worms always shews the Digestions are weak and imperfect; for which Reason Children liable to Worms should not be nourished with Food difficult to digest. We should be particularly careful not to stuff them with Oils, which, admitting such Oils should immediately kill some of their Worms, do yet increase that Cause, which disposes them to generate others. A long continued Use of Filings of Iron is the Remedy, that most effectually destroys this Disposition to generate Worms.

Of Convulsions.

Sec. 391. I have already said, Sec. 378, that the Convulsions of Children are almost constantly the Effect of some other Disease, and especially of some of the four I have mentioned. Some other, though less frequent Causes, sometimes occasion them, and these may be reduced to the following.

The first of them is the corrupted Humours, that often abound in their Stomachs and Intestines; and which, by their Irritation, produce irregular Motions throughout the whole System of the Nerves, or at least through some Parts of them; whence those Convulsions arise, which are merely involuntary Motions of the Muscles. These putrid Humours are the Consequence of too great a Load of Aliments, of unsound ones, or of such, as the Stomachs of Children are incapable of digesting. These Humours are also sometimes the Effect of a Mixture and Confusion of different Aliments, and of a bad Distribution of their Nourishment.

It may be known that the Convulsions of a Child are owing to this Cause, by the Circumstances that have preceded them, by a disgusted loathing Stomach; by a certain Heaviness and Load at it; by a foul Tongue; a great Belly; by its bad Complexion, and its disturbed unrefreshing Sleep.

The Child's proper Diet, that is, a certain Diminution of the Quantity of its Food; some Glysters of warm Water, and one Purge of No. 63, very generally remove such Convulsions.

Sec. 392. The second Cause is the bad Quality of their Milk. Whether it be that the Nurse has fallen into a violent Passion, some considerable Disgust, great Fright or frequent Fear: whether she has eat unwholesome Food, drank too much Wine, spirituous Liquors, or any strong Drink: whether she is seized with a Descent of her monthly Discharges, and that has greatly disordered her Health; or finally whether she prove really sick: In all these Cases the Milk is vitiated, and exposes the Infant to violent Symptoms, which sometimes speedily destroy it.

The Remedies for Convulsions, from this Cause, consist, 1, In letting the Child abstain from this corrupted Milk, until the Nurse shall have recovered her State of Health and Tranquillity, the speedy Attainment of which may be forwarded by a few Glysters; by gentle pacific Medicines; by an entire Absence of whatever caused or conduced to her bad Health; and by drawing off all the Milk that had been so vitiated.

2, In giving the Child itself some Glysters: in making it drink plentifully of a light Infusion of the Lime-tree Flowers, in giving it no other Nourishment for a Day or two, except Panada and other light Spoon-meat, without Milk.