Domestic medicine : or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines: With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners / by William Buchan.

  • Buchan William, 1729-1805.
Date:
1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Domestic medicine : or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines: With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners / by William Buchan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    >y I Of the Clothing of Children. The Clothing of an infant is so simple a matter, that it is suprising how any person should err in it; yet many children lose their lives, and others are deformed, by inattention to this article. Nature knows of no use ol clothes to an infant, but to keep it warm. All that is necessary for this purpose, is to wrap it in a soft loose covering. AYere a mother left to the dictates of Nature alone, she would certainly pursue this course. But the business of dressing an infant has long been out of the hands of mothers, and has at last become a secret which none but adepts pretend to understand. -From the most early ages it has been thought necessary, that a woman in labour should have some person to attend her. This in time became a business ; and, as in all others, those who were employed in it strove to outdo one another in the different branches of their profession. The dressing of a child came of course to be considered as the midwife’s province ; who no doubt imagined, that the more dexterity she could shew in this article, the more her skill would be admired. Her attempts are seconded by the vanity of parents, who, too often desirous of making a shew of the infant as soon as it was born, were am- bitious to have as much finery heaped upon it as possible. Thus it came to be thought as necessary for a midwife to excel in bracing and dressing an infant, as for a surgeon to be expert in applying bandages to a broken limb; and the poor child, as soon as it came into the world, had as many rollers and wrappers applied to its body, as if every bone, had been fractured in the birth ; while these were often so tight, as not only to gall and wound its tender frame, but even to obstruct the motion of the heart, lungs, and other organs necessary to life. In most parts of Britain, the practice of rolling children with so many bandages is now in some measure laid aside ; but it would still be a difficult task to persuade the generality of man- kind, that the shape of an infant does not entirely depend on the care of the midwife. So far, however, are all her endea- vours to mend the shape from being successful, that they con- stantly operate the contrary way, and mankind become de- formed in proportion to the means used to prevent it. How little deformity of body is to be found among uncivilized, na- tions ? So little, indeed, that it is vulgarly believed they put all their deformed children to death. The truth is, they hardly know such a thing as a deformed child. Neither should we, if we followed their example. Savage nations never think of manacling their children. They allow them the full use of