A treatise on the physiological and moral management of infancy / [Andrew Combe].

  • Combe, Andrew, 1797-1847
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the physiological and moral management of infancy / [Andrew Combe]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/180 (page 3)
    printed on the infant organism, are the principal sources of the fatality, and we can succeed in impressing that truth on the minds of parents, as well as of professional men, our prospects will then be of a far more encouraging kind. Under the former belief, we’ must re- main inactive, and humbly submit to an infliction from which we cannot hope toescape. Under the latter, on the con- trary, it will be jmpossible for us to rest satisfied without doing our utmost to discover and remove the] hitherto ne- glected sources of danger, and to place every organ of the body, as far as pos- sible, under those conditions which rea- son and observation shall have proved to be most advantageous for its healthy development and action. Let us now see which of these conclusions is best supported by the evidence within our reach. If it can be shewn, that the preser- vation or destruction of life in infancy is not of invariable extent, but bears a marked and direct relation to the na- ture of the treatment and external in- fluences to which the young being is subjected, the question at issue will be solved beyond the possibility of doubt. If the infant mortality be the result of an unalterable dispensation of Provi- dence, without respect to good or bad management, we may expect to find it nearly the same in all ages and states of civilization, and bearing no relation whatever to the conduct of others; whereas, if it be chiefly owing to se- condary causes, many of which it is in our power to guard against, it will ne- cessarily be found to vary in amount, and in direct relation to the favour- able or unfavourable circumstances in which the child is placed, and the good or bad treatment to which it is sub- jected. Although few of my readers will be at a loss to decide which of these two conclusions is the right one; yet, in order that nothing may be left to uncertainty or conjecture, let us first contemplate the extent to which, in past times, infant life has falien a sa- crifice to ignorance and bad treatment, that we may afterwards contrast it with the comparatively exceilent re- sults of a mode of management of a Ee Pe ey more enlightened though still far from perfect kind. We have already seen that, in Eng- land, the average mortality of nies among rich and poor is about 1 in every 7, before the end of the first year of ex- istence. So directly, however, is in- fant life influenced by good or bad ma- nagement, that, about a century ago, the workhouses of London presented the astounding result of TWENTY- THREE deaths in every twenty-four in- fants under the age of one year! For a long time this frightful devastation was allowed to go on, as beyond the reach of human remedy. But when at last an improved system of manage- ment was adopted, in consequence of a parliamentary inquiry having taken place, the proportion of deaths was speedily reduced from 2600 to 450 a- year. Here, then, was a total of 2150 instances of loss of life, occurring year- ly in a single institution, chargeable, not against any unalterable decrees of Providence, as some are disposed to contend, as an excuse for their own negligence, but against the ignorance, indifference, or cruelty of man! And what a lesson of vigilance and inquiry ought not such occurrences to convey, when even now, with all our boasted improvements, every tenth infant still perishes within a month of its birth ? We do not require, indeed, to go’so far back as a century ago, for such a deplorable example of the deadly re- sults of ignorance: we may find one equally striking in Mr Maclean’s re- cent account of his “. Visit to St Kilda in 1838.” After remarking that the population of St Kilda is diminishing rather than increasing, Mr Maclean states, that this unusual result is part- ly owing to the prevalence of epide- mies, but chiefly to the excessive mor- tality which is at all times going on in infancy. ‘ HIGHT OUT OF EVERY TEN children,” he says, “ die between the eighth and twelfth day of their existence!” Admitting even the approximative truth of this startling statement, the reader will naturally be disposed to wouder what poisonous quality can in- fect the air or soil of St Kilda, to cause such a tremendous destruction of life;