A practical treatise on the management and diseases of children / by Richard T. Evanson and Henry Maunsell.
- Evanson, Richard Tonson, 1800-1871.
- Date:
- 1843
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A practical treatise on the management and diseases of children / by Richard T. Evanson and Henry Maunsell. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
37/412
![conveniently effected by placing the body and limbs in a basin con- taining a sufficient quantity of water to cover them, while the head is suffered to rest upon the left arm of the nurse. The eyes should be washed with particular care, and clean water used for this purpose, as the allowing of impurities to remain in contact with these tender organs is the most common cause of the dangerous ophthalmia of infants. All extraneous matters should also be removed from the folds of the skin in the groins, arm-pits, &c. ; but no force likely to hurt the surface should be employed, nor need any extraordinary anxiety be felt for the perfect removal of the vernix, as it never fails to dry and scale off in a day or two : we have not found soap to be required, although it is recommended by many writers. In this country, where whiskey is in universal use, the nurses generally employ a little of it for washing the child's head, under the idea that it prevents the taking of cold. This practice is certainly not a neces- sary one in ordinary cases ; but at the same time, it does not appear to be attended with any injurious consequences : and when we can say so much for any popular custom, it is as well to let people have their way, and direct our attention the more closely to the prevention of such interference as may be really prejudicial. [Even if the practice could be viewed as one productive of neither beneficial nor injurious effects, it is better that the physician should discountenance it: but as washing the head of a new-born child with ardent spirits must produce more or less irritation of the scalp — especially where the application of the spirits is repeated daily, as we have known it to be, for weeks or even months — the custom should be denounced as one decidedly prejudicial. — C] The washing having been accomplished, with as little delay as pos- sible, and the surface carefully dried with a soft napkin, the next business of the nurse is, to dress her charge. This process is com- menced by an arrangement for the protection of the remnant of the naval string. The cut surface of this should be carefully examined, lest, as frequently happens, secondary bleeding should take place, in consequence of the loosening of the ligature, dependent on the oozing out of the gelatinous fluid, which makes the bulk of the cord. This occurrence is most likely to take place when the cord is particularly thick ; and the gelatinous fluid very abundant, as the pressure of the ligature is then less directly applied to the vessels ; when hemorrhage has taken place, a fresh ligature must be applied firmly, and its ends cut off close to the knot. The cord is then to be drawn through a small circular hole, cut in a piece of old linen, about four or five inches in diameter, which is to be gently folded around it. In the prepara- tion of this envelope, nurses are particularly anxious to have it ex- tremely dry and warm. It is always held carefully to the fire, and sometimes even scorched, before they will permit its application — a prejudice which is certainly harmless, and probably but one indica- tion of the general instinct which teaches them that a new-born infant](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21118346_0037.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
