A practical treatise on the management and diseases of children / by R.T. Evanson and H. Maunsell.

  • Evanson, Richard Tonson, 1799?-
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on the management and diseases of children / by R.T. Evanson and H. Maunsell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    faculties of maii^ and the laws by wliicli tliey are regulated in their natural development^ or influenced by artificial training. jVor is the necessity for such knowledge confined to the system more immedi- ately connected with mental manifestation. The same holds good respecting all the other systems in the body^ muscular^ circulatory_, and digestive, as well as nervous; for wdthout due attention to eachj we shall not be able to do justice to any^ nor secure for the whole its best advantages during the period of development or growth. With regard to the general growth of the body, and the advance in height_, w^eight_, and strength, differences arise from age and sex; and these have been accurately investigated by M. Quetelet.^ According to him, the average weight of the male infant at birth, is about half a pound more than that of the female, and the length about an inch more ; and the annual growth of the female infant is less than that of the male, but her development is more early com- pleted. Immediately after birth, the weight of the infant is found to diminish; nor does it begin again sensibly to increase until after the first week. The growth of the stature is most rapid during the first year, when it amounts to nearly eight inches; it is less rapid as the child approaches the fourth or fifth year, appearing to diminish in direct ratio to the age, up to that time; the growtli in the second year being only liaK that of the first; in the third year,t only one third; but afterwards it increases with a tolerably regular progression. A remarkable difference is often to be observed in the degree of development, or proportional growth of one organ or system of organs more than another, and in the consequent predominance of the class of functions which this system of organs performs. In some children the head is very large, and great livehness and intel- ligence are early displayed, the cerebro-spinal system of nerves being that which preponderates; and this lays the foundation for a particular temperament, which, according to the rational view of M. Thomas, J would, in this instance, be the cranial or nervous temperament. * Sur I'Homme et le developpement de ses facultes, &c. &c. f It is a popular observation that the height is never more than doubled after the third year, the maximum medium, particularly in females, being attained at that age. [Note to 4th Edition.] I See Physiologic des Temperamens ou Constitutions, &c. &c., par F. Thomas, D.M.P.
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