Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her ChildrenChavasse, Pye Henry
Science
Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children
Chavasse, Pye Henry
Child care; Children -- Health and hygiene; Infants -- Health and hygiene
Strict attention to the roles 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 neighbourhood, 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 of
farinaceous food--such as rice, sago, arrowroot, &c., 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."--_Sir Astley Cooper on Scrofula_.
364. _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 are generally most beneficial. In a patient
with confirmed scrofula it will of course be necessary to consult a
skilful 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, or Llandudno; or if the lungs be
delicate, by a more sheltered coast, such as, either St Leonards 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 jar 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."--_Chronicles_.
365. _Have you any remarks to make on a girl stooping_?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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