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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![which naturally change their form, as tadpoles, were prevented from doing so by the withdrawal of light. In man it is not easy to obtain any information as to the specific effect of light unaided by air and heat; but from the facts just alluded to, we are warranted in inferring analogically that light must materially influence develop- ment of form. The infant, therefore, as soon as its eyes lose their extreme sensibility, should be freely exposed to light. The nursery should never be darkened during the day ; and at night, it is better that the shutters should be left unclosed, and no window-curtains used. XrV. AIR. We hope the stress which we have laid upon the propriety of keeping up a due degree of warmth in the nursery, will not be inter- preted as warranting any measure likely to interfere with a free access of air. Both objects are perfectly compatible. The purity of the air in which the child resides and sleeps should be secured, by providing means of ventilation, in a sufficient number of windows, and a chimney, which latter is absolutely essential to the establish- ment of a current of air; and also by restricting the number of indi- viduals residing in the apartment, within the narrowest possible limits. It has been already stated, that a certain agitation in the atmosphere is healthful •, and, therefore, the nursery should be as large as possible, in order to favour motion of the air contained within it.* But our attentions with regard to air, should not be confined to the nursery; the vivifying influence which it has been shown to produce upon the system, by contact with the surface of the body, furnishes us with an explanation of the advantageous results, which experience shows to be derivable from an exposure of the child to the open air as freely as possible, consistently with an observance of the principles already inculcated under other heads. It is this vivify- ing influence which renders the play in the open fields so much more useful than the most carefully directed exercises of the gym- nasium. XV. HEAT. We have already incidentally said so much upon this subject, that anything further would be merely repetition. We may, however, take the opportunity of controverting a very common fallacy, viz., that exposure to heat renders the body more susceptible of the ill effects of cold. Dr. Edwards found, that in exposing animals to successive applications of cold, their temperature will fall the more slowly, the longer they shall have been subjected to the influence of warmth. Hence, that those who are liable to frequent exposure to severe cold, are rendered more capable of supporting it, by subject- * Mr. Carmichael, in his admirable lectures oh Scrofula, published in the 3d Vol. of the Medical Press, deprecates the practice, common in these countries, of placing nurseries in the attic stories of houses, where they must of necessity be re- cipients of all the foul air generated in the apartments beneath. The caution is well worthy of being attended to. [Note to 3d Edition.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21118346_0061.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
