North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826Various
History
North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826
Various
Medicine -- Periodicals
Heat, therefore, connected with confined air, being among the most
frequent causes of the complaint, it is necessary, as far as possible,
to counteract them. Should a strong predisposition to cholera be
suspected, the best plan will be to send the child into the country
during the summer. Both as a preventive and a remedy, country air is
decidedly the most effectual, to which we can resort. But in most
instances, it would be exceedingly inconvenient, sometimes impossible
for mothers to leave their homes and occupations in the city; and, under
such circumstances, it becomes necessary to substitute measures, which
may produce, as nearly as possible, the same effects. To keep the child
cool, and expose him to the fresh air, are the ends to be obtained. For
this purpose, he should be carried frequently into the open squares, or
beyond the suburbs of the city. I am in the habit of recommending to
parents, whose circumstances will not allow of a removal from the city
during the summer season, to make frequent excursions across the
Delaware, and into the neighbouring woods of New Jersey. The refreshing
effects of the air on the river are truly surprising. The brightened eye
and animated countenance of the infant, give speedy proof of their
favourable influence; and when labouring under the disease, even in its
lowest stage, the little patient will often exhibit immediate signs of
amendment.
In the prevention of cholera, much may also be expected from a proper
attention to the lodging of children. Many parents have a great dread of
the night air; and exclude it from their chambers, as sedulously as if
it were infected with poison. But, in guarding their children from
taking cold, they expose them to a much greater danger. Observe their
mode of treatment. The doors and windows are carefully closed; the child
is placed in a feather bed, with his parents on each side, and almost
smothered with the bed-clothes. Perhaps other children are lodged in the
same apartment; and thus the delicate system of the infant is exposed to
the debilitating influence of great heat and stagnant air, combined with
the effluvia, which, in such a situation, must be abundantly generated.
Simply to enter such a room in the morning, is almost sufficient to
sicken a healthy individual; how much more injurious must be its effects
upon the lodgers themselves. Examine in the morning a child, who has
passed the night thus confined. You will find him limber as a rag,
exhausted by perspiration, wholly destitute of animation, without
appetite, and on the very verge of cholera. I should recommend an
entirely different plan of management. Instead of a feather bed, the
child should be placed on a hard mattress, or on blankets folded and
laid upon the floor. The covering should be light, but comfortable. The
doors and windows should be open; so that fresh air, that _pabulum
vitae_, without which health cannot be sustained, may be freely admitted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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