Within a few days I sought an opportunity to speak with the parents
about the management of their little son. It was painful to tell
them that I thought they might have prevented the death of Charlie.
But I said what I thought was true, and then advised a new policy in
the case of the remaining child. I said to them, "Your son who has
been taken from you, was carefully screened from the sunshine. When
he rode out in the baby-wagon, it was always under cover. And he
slept always in that bedroom, into which the direct rays of the sun
never come; that great tree makes it impossible. A child cannot live
where a plant will not grow; and if you doubt what I am telling you,
try a pot of flowers in Charlie's bedroom. You will find that, in a
single month, the leaves will fall, and the plant will die. Charlie
spent three quarters of his life in that bedroom."
The mother, at length, when convinced, cried out in very anguish of
soul, "What shall we do? what shall we do?"
"Well," I said, "my dear friend, if you would save this child, and
that is the only available sleeping-room for it, I advise that you
have the trees which shade that part of the house cut down. Trees
should never be allowed to shade human dwellings. They are very
beautiful and noble objects, to my own fancy more beautiful and
noble than any other productions of our planet, and I would have
them multiplied, but would not have them near our houses."
The trees were cut down, the blessed sunshine came in to dry,
sweeten and purify the bedroom. Its atmosphere was so changed that
no one could fail to observe it. The child was kept much in the open
air, and when taking his midday nap, he was occasionally laid naked
upon a mattress, near a window, in the direct rays of the sun, his
head protected, but the rest of the body exposed to the sunshine.
The little fellow's health greatly improved. I believe he never had
another attack of croup.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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