Part 21

When after-pains prove so troublesome as to deprive the patient of her rest, it will be necessary to have recourse to fomentations or anodynes; red pepper and spirits, simmered together a few minutes, and flannels dipped in it and applied to the belly, will generally relieve them; if it fails, apply a fomentation of bitter herbs, and give two teaspoonfuls of the tincture of hops in milk or tea. If these fail, which I never knew, give half a teaspoonful of capsicum in milk. These remedies are to be assisted by keeping up a sufficient pressure on the belly at the same time by means of a broad bandage.

NURSING.

A child must not be put to the breast, if the mother’s health is very poor, or if she has any venereal, scrofulous, consumptive taint, or herpetic disease, St. Anthony’s fire, &c. We have conversed with females who are subject to the last complaint, and who have communicated it to their children, which destroyed them all. The poison is transmitted from the mother to the child. In any of these cases, the infant must be reared on the nursing bottle. It is best to use cream instead of milk; the child thrives well upon it, less quantity answers, and it does not curdle, like milk, upon the stomach.

Atrophy from Suckling.—Some women of a delicate constitution cannot suckle long without an evident appearance of declining health; and, if persisted in, it might terminate in a general wasting of the body and loss of strength, or some morbid affection of the lungs. When, therefore, a woman finds her health declining, and that she gets weaker every day with loss of appetite and languor, she ought immediately to leave off suckling; she should use a generous diet, with a moderate quantity of wine bitters daily, and, if convenient, change the air, particularly if an inhabitant of a large and populous city or town. If the change is not found sufficiently efficacious of itself, when conjoined with a restorative diet, a course of tonics should be given. Gentle exercise on horseback or in a carriage will greatly assist the effect of these remedies.

INFLAMMATION OF THE BREASTS.

This disease is easily known by the pain, hardness, and swelling which accompany it. In some cases the whole breast appears to be affected; in others, only on one side; and, in some, the effect is small and superficial.

When the breast inflames, it is evident that the retention of the milk must, for a time at least, increase the pain.

The first object then should be to have the breasts drawn, either by the child or some other means; but, should the milk not come away readily, and the pain be increased thereby, farther attempts must not be made; otherwise both the disease and sufferings of the woman may be aggravated. A cooling diet and an open state of the bowels are necessary while the swelling continues. And it is better for the patient to remain in bed, as the weight of the breast, while in the erect posture, often increases the inflammation. The breast should be gently rubbed with a small quantity of sweet oil or unsalted butter, and poultices of crumb of bread and lead water applied. If the pain and hardness do not very soon go off by this application, warm emollient poultices, as milk and bread, with a little oil, or united with the leaves of the thorn apple, must be had recourse to. These poultices will not promote suppuration unless the inflammation has proceeded so far, that the process has already begun, and in this case the sooner it is produced the better.

If the abscess do not point and break soon, no good can be gained by delay: an opening should therefore be made, so as to evacuate the matter freely. This not only gives immediate relief, but prevents a farther extension of the mischief. The milk and bread or flax-seed poultices must be continued for a few days, in order to remove the hardness, and then the part must be dressed, as in ordinary cases.

Indurations remaining after an abscess, may be frequently remedied by the application of a mercurial plaster, or cloths wet with the camphorated spirit, or rubbing the part, night and morning, with mercurial ointment, united with a little camphor.

Sometimes after the abscess heals, and the breast seems to be cured, it swells a little, especially towards night. This is from weakness, and is cured by strengthening the constitution.

Many women suffer more from this complaint than from all the various stages of pregnancy, labor, and delivery combined, and with whom broken breasts are an invariable attendant of confinement; they overlook all the other sufferings they have to undergo, and fix their dread and apprehension upon this. It is, therefore, all-important that inflammation of the breasts should not be permitted to take place, by proper precautionary measures, and this can, in all cases, be accomplished, by the mode of treatment pointed out in this work, which, as yet, has not been mentioned in any other, but of its invariable success there is not a shadow of doubt, as it has been tested under circumstances the most unfavorable, in cases where every confinement was attended with broken breasts, till this mode of treatment was had recourse to, and the patients, to their great surprise and joy, for the first time entirely escaped their uniform affliction. It is hoped the medical faculty will avail themselves of this invaluable mode of treatment, that hereafter inflammation of the breasts may be unknown, since prevention is so easy and practicable.

To prevent Inflamed or Broken Breasts.

This most desirable and important object is accomplished by covering the entire breasts with diachylon plaster (which can be obtained of every druggist, the machine-spread is preferable) rather tightly or closely put on, merely making a round hole (about the circumference of a dollar) for the nipple, sufficiently large not to interfere with the suckling of the infant, should it be put to the breast; and if not, it is not only unnecessary to draw the milk, but it would be advisable to refrain from it, even if a little pain or distension should supervene, as the milk is sure to find an outlet in the nipple. The plaster must be cut round and embrace and cover the entire of each breast, and should be put on within eight or ten hours after delivery, and before the milk threatens. The effect is to superinduce the flow of milk to the nipple, from which it freely and profusely flows, in no case requiring the application of stimulants to induce its discharge, and, by keeping the breasts in constant moisture, effectually prevents hardness by coagulation of milk. In ten days or thereabout the plasters can be taken off without inconvenience.

It is not too much to say that broken or inflamed breasts are impossible when this precautionary mode of treatment is adopted, as it has, in every instance, where it has been tested upon those who before were invariably afflicted with broken breasts, been attended with most triumphant success; and it has thus been put to the test in more than fifty instances to the writer’s personal knowledge. In communicating this important fact, therefore, he does so with the most thorough confidence that he is conducing to the amelioration of much suffering, and without assuming that this may not be known to others, he can only say that he has not met with any mention of it in any works to which he has had access. Should those, therefore, into whose hands this work may fall have a wife, or a relation, or a neighbor, who, heretofore, have been afflicted with inflamed or broken breasts, they would have it in their power to ameliorate, nay, prevent much suffering, which to the author of these lines will be a source of heartfelt satisfaction.

MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN.

It is during infancy that the foundation of a good constitution is generally laid, and it is, therefore, important that parents be taught the best method of managing their offspring, in order to preserve their health. Great ignorance is manifested on this subject; it is owing to this that so many children sicken and die; and, furthermore, it is in consequence of this ignorance in our forefathers that the present generation have become so weak, sickly, and effeminate; and most of these evils may be imputed to errors in diet, regimen, mineral and depletive agents, &c. We have departed from the simplicity of nature, and we must, of course, suffer the penalty.

1st. On Diet.—If the mother or nurse has enough of milk, the child will need little or no food for the third or fourth month. It will then be proper to give it a little of some food that is easy of digestion once or twice a day; this will ease the mother, will accustom the child by degrees to take food, and will render the weaning both less difficult and less dangerous. All great and sudden transitions are to be avoided in nursing; for this purpose the food of children ought not only to be simple, but to resemble as nearly as possible the properties of milk: indeed, milk itself should make a principal part of their food, not only before they are weaned, but for some time after.

Next to milk we would recommend good bread, which may be given to a child as soon as it shows an inclination to chew; and it may at all times be allowed as much as it will eat. The very chewing of bread will promote the cutting of the teeth and the discharge of saliva, while, by mixing with the nurse’s milk in the stomach, it will afford an excellent nourishment.

Many are in the habit of pouring down various liquids and mixtures made of rich substances, and so much sweetened that the tender organs of digestion are impaired, and acidity and bowel diseases follow; articles of this nature should be avoided: no food, except the milk of the mother, should be given, unless absolutely necessary; nature has designated this liquid exclusively for the nourishment of the infant, and, indeed, we may say, for children.

There is another precaution to be observed, which is, “never to put an infant to a wet-nurse if it can possibly be avoided;” such persons are generally strangers, and they often communicate the most loathsome and fatal diseases; besides, their milk is often rendered unwholesome by age or other causes: this is a very unnatural practice.

The milk of the mother, then, should constitute the only food of the infant, except in cases of disease, when it becomes necessary to obtain a wet-nurse, or bring up the children on the bottle, which can be done very easily.

We attended a lady who was almost covered with a herpetic complaint, or the salt rheum, and that, too, when her child was born. She was treated and cured her of the complaint. The infant was fed on milk, by introducing a silver tube into a bottle containing it.

We never knew a child so quiet and free from pain; as much so as any offspring of the brute creation, which are free from it merely by following nature or instinct, which never errs. The milk should be of the best quality, and, if possible, of the same cow.

Now, it appears to us, that if females imitated these animals, were to live on vegetable instead of animal food, and drink nothing but water, they would not only bring forth as easy as the Indians or these animals, but their offspring would be free from pain, and perhaps be as exempt from sickness. Would not this course produce a revolution in our habits, health, and in the practice of medicine? In the present diseased state of society it might require a long time to bring about a change in the system; but an immediate benefit would follow by adopting these physiological principles. Do not these facts open a new field of investigation and improvement?

Is it not notorious that some infants are crying a great portion of their time in consequence of pain? and is it natural, or can there be any other cause, except the poison communicated to it, through the medium of the blood, before and after it is born; or the disease may proceed from the impurity of the mother’s milk, occasioned by errors in diet? It is self-evident that it is so, from the fact that animals are free from these symptoms.

Can there be any other cause why so many children are in distress from birth, and generally die young, or continue weak and sickly all their lives? There must be a reformation in the habits, taste, and education of modern females. Many mothers are as ignorant, when they have brought a child into the world, of what is to be done for it as the infant itself.

Says Combe: “The leading error in the rearing of the young, I must again repeat, is over-feeding, an error serious in itself, but which may easily be avoided by the parent yielding only to the indications of appetite, and administering food slowly and in small quantities at a time. By no other means can the colics, and bowel-complaints, and irritability of the nervous system, so common in infancy, be effectually prevented, and strength and healthy nutrition be secured. Nature never meant the infant stomach to be converted into a receptacle for laxatives, carminatives, antacids, spicy stimulants and astringents; and when these become necessary, we may rest assured that there is something faulty in our management, however perfect it may seem to ourselves. The only exception is where the child is defectively constituted, and then, of course, it may fail to thrive under the best measures which can be advised for its relief.