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

Evanson, Richard Tonson, 1799?-

Date:: 1847

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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$floats while in its inotlier''s womb. After birth this coating has no useful purpose to serve; and would be injurious, by obstructing the pores of the skin_, and by intercepting the Yi\'ifying influence of the air of whicli we have already spoken.^ It is, therefore advisable to remove it; and, accordingly, the first act of the nurse is, to wash the new-born child. The washing should be performed with warm water, and a fine sponge; and as the soft bones of the infant render it unfit to bear much pressure from the hands, the operation will be most safely and conveniently efi'ected by placing the bodv and limbs in a basin containing a suflicient 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 ophtlialmia of infants. All extraneous mat- ters should also be removed from the folds of the skiji 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 caseosa 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, 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 certaiidy not a necessary one in ordinary cases; but at the same time, it does not appear to be attended with injurious consequences : and when we can say so * If any authority were wanting for the removal of the vernix caseosa, we have it in the practice, wliich obtains universally among animals, of licking their offspring immediately after birth. [Note to 1st Edition.] In a note by the German translator of this work, we find Oesterlen {OStiol. und Pathol, der Krankheiten neugehorner Kinder: Heidelberger Klinische Annalen Iter Band Istes Heft, 1831J, quoted in support of a different view of this subject This author, it appears, is of opinion that the chief use of the vernix caseosa is found subsequent to birth, and that it is designed to protect the skin from the overstimulating effects of the oxygen of the atmosphere. He states that premature children have a smaller quantity of this covering than those born at the full time, and that the deficiency is in proportion to the immatureness. Such has not been the result of our observations, nor have we noticed the ill consequences which he attributes to the removal of the vernix caseosa, viz. aphthap, jaundice and oplitlialmia. [Note to 4th Edition.]$

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

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