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.)
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![II. FOOD AND MEDICINE IMMEDIATELY AFTER BIRTH. During foetal existence, the various organs designed for the per- formance of digestion, produce a greater or lesser quantity of their peculiar secretions ; and, as there is no exit provided for these, they accumulate in the intestines of the child, constituting the dark green, or brownish, pitch-like substance denominated meconium. By many persons even at the present day, the retention of this meconium is supposed to exert a most baneful influence upon the health of the child; and it is believed that no time should be lost in eifecting its speedy removal. Accordingly, very few children in this country are fortunate enough to escape being dosed with castor oil, immediately upon their arrival in the world; and many are obliged to undergo the additional peril of having a quantity of calomel forced down their throats. Neither of these practices, however, is constantly- neces- sary, and the last is positively injurious : the delicate mucous mem- brane of the child's intestines, only fitted for the reception of the -mildest nutriment, is always injured by the operation of a medicine so active and so irritating as calomel. To the milder action of castor oil, the same objection does not apply; and where the abdomen of the child is full, and no evacuation takes place for five or six hours after birth, it will usually be found advantageous to administer half a drachm of oil, provided we can procure it fresh, and free from rancidity.* We are, however, decidedly of opinion, that it is better and more natural to allow an infant to sleep quietly for five or six hours after birth ; and not, before that period, to disturb it, or irritate its stomach, by the administration of anything whatsoever. Those who advise the -immediate employment of purgatives, assert that such practice is consistent with the plans of nature,t inasmuch as they suppose the milk first secreted by the mother (or colostrum, as it is termed), to possess a purgative property. The argument is obvi- ously a contradictory one ; for, if nature herself provides a purgative, why should we seek to supersede her efforts by artificial means ? The fact, however, of the first milk being purgative, is not proved, and is altogether denied by some.J It is probable that it possesses no specific .purgative quality, but excites the intestines merely by mechanical distention, and so in effect produces expulsion of the meconium, as other food is found to do, in cases in which it is given in consequence of the secretion of milk not being established in the mother's breasts, for two or three days after labour. So much for medicine, immediately after birth; and upon the same principle, viz., that sleep is what the infant most requires, we do not think it necessary to give it food, for some hours. Should the mother be able to supply the natural nutriment at the end of * This is a matter of considerable importance. In the interior of Germany, where, in consequence of the long land-carriage to which it is subjected, castor-oil is almost universally rancid, this purgative is considered as peculiarly irritating. [Note to 3d Edition.] f Dewees. % Jorg, Handbuch zum Erkennen u. Heilen der Kinderkrankheiten.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21118346_0039.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
