Domestic medicine. Or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines : With an appendix containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. To which is now first added the following new treatises: sea-bathing, etc / By J. Baker.

William Buchan

Date:: 1809

Credit: Domestic medicine. Or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines : With an appendix containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. To which is now first added the following new treatises: sea-bathing, etc / By J. Baker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$witli tlie mother, who is often likewife feverifh; to which w'e may add the heat of the bed-chamber, the wi-i \ and otlicr heating things, too frequently given to ' ddivn immediately after the birth. When all thefe are combined, which docs not feldom happen, they nuifl; increafe the fever to fneh a degree as will endan- ger tlic life of the infant. • I'he danger of keeping infants too hot will further appear, if we confider that, after they have been for fometime in the lituation mentioned above, they are often lent into the country to be nurfed in a cold houfe. Is it any wonder, if a child, from fuch a tranfition, catches a mortal cold, or contra(Ti:s fome other fatal difeale? When an infant is kept too, hot, its lungs, not being lufficiently expanded, are apt to remain weak and flac- cid for life; hence proceeds coughs, confumptions and other difeafes of the bread. It woukl anfwer little purpofe to fpecify the particu- cular fpccies of drefs proper for an infant. Thefe will always vary in different countries, according to cuftom and the humour of parents. The great rule to be obferved is, ‘That a child have no more clothes than are necejfary to keep it Tuarm, and that they be quite eafy for its body. Stays are the very bane of infants. A volume would not fuffice to point out all the bad effects of this ridi- culous piece of drefs both on children and adults. The madnefs in favour of days feems, however, to be fonie- what abated ; and it is to he hoped tlie world will, in time, become wife enough to know, that the human fliape docs not folely depend upon whale-bone and bend leather*.' ♦ Stays mafic ol bend h-alher are worn bv all the women of lower st.ition in many parts of Knglaiu], i am sorry to understand, that iliere are still mothers mad enough to Ijlce ihtir daughters very tight in order to improve their shape. ' A< reasoning would be totally io-t upon such people, I shall beg leave just to ask them, Why there arc ten deformed women for one loan ? and likewise to recommend to their persual a short moral pre- cept; which torbids us to delorm the human body.$