American family physician : detailing important means of preserving health, from infancy to old age : the offices women should perform to each other at births, and the diseases peculiar to the sex, also those of children and adults : with an appendix containing hints respecting the treatment of domestic animals, and the best means of preserving fish and meat / by Th. Ewell.

  • Ewell, Thomas, 1785-1826.
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: American family physician : detailing important means of preserving health, from infancy to old age : the offices women should perform to each other at births, and the diseases peculiar to the sex, also those of children and adults : with an appendix containing hints respecting the treatment of domestic animals, and the best means of preserving fish and meat / by Th. Ewell. 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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    PRESERVATION OF HEALTH. PART I. RESPECTING INFANTS. To Mothers. As the foundation of many of the diseases of the human body is made in infancy, it appears proper to commence my observa- tions for the preservation of healih by the treatment of children. It is a subject about which a great variety of notions have been entertained, in consequence of the general failure to attend to the course pointed out by nature, and pursued by all animals below the human. It ought to be well understood by all mo- thers, to enable them to direct, if not perform, the necessary duties, without a dependance upon ignorant nurses or attendants. The variety of plans recommended, and modes adopted, would fill a volume. Even the stupid would be astonished to observe some kinds of treatment, different from that which they follow, probably of not worse tendency than their own usages. Every midwife and every family appears to have some peculiarity in the treatment of children. Surely the whole of them will have to account for the injuries they have done to babes, if we have ever to account for follies which might have been avoided by the exercise of our natural sense. As an example of such fol- lies, in one of the most intelligent families I have ever seen, the midwife was allowed, at every birth, on first dressing the child, to hold it up by the heels, and give it a shake! then a moderate dose of brandy and water: this stimulus, aided with sugar and