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
Green dresses, as they are coloured with a preparation of arsenic, are
equally as dangerous as green paper-hangings; a child ought,
therefore, never to wear a green dress. "It may be interesting to some
of our readers," says _Land and Water_, "to know that the new green,
so fashionable for ladies' dresses, is just as dangerous in its nature
as the green wall-paper, about which so much was written some time
since. It is prepared with a large quantity of arsenic; and we have
been assured by several of the leading dressmakers, that the workwomen
employed in making up dresses of this colour are seriously affected
with all the symptoms of arsenical poisoning. Let our lady friends
take care."
Children's toys are frequently painted of a green colour with arsenite
of copper, and are consequently, highly dangerous for him to play
with. The best toy for a child is a box of _unpainted_ wooden bricks,
which is a constant source of amusement to him.
If you have your nursery walls hung with paintings and engravings, let
them be of good quality. The horrid daubs and bad engravings that
usually disfigure nursery walls, are enough to ruin the taste of a
child, and to make him take a disgust to drawing, which would be a
misfortune. A fine engraving and a good painting expand and elevate
his mind. We all know that first impressions are the most vivid and
the most lasting. A taste in early life for everything refined and
beautiful purifies his mind, cultivates his intellect, keeps him from
low company, and makes him grow up a gentleman!
Lucifer matches, in case of sudden illness, should, both in the
nursery and in the bedroom, be always in readiness; but they must be
carefully placed out of the reach of children, as lucifer matches are
a deadly poison. Many inquests have been held on children who have,
from having sucked them, been poisoned by them.
166. _Have you any observation to make on the LIGHT of a nursery_?
Let the window, or what is better, the windows, of a nursery be very
large, so as to thoroughly light up every nook and corner of the room,
as there is nothing more conducive to the health of a child than an
abundance of light in the dwelling. A room cannot, then, be too light.
The windows of a nursery are generally too small. A child requires as
much light as a plant. Gardeners are well aware of the great
importance of light in the construction of their greenhouses, and yet
a child, who requires it as much, and is of much greater importance,
is cooped up in dark rooms!
The windows of a nursery ought not only to be frequently opened to let
in fresh air, but should be _frequently cleaned_, to let in plenty of
light and of sunshine, as nothing is so cheering and beneficial to a
child as an abundance of light and sunshine!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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