The healthy infant, a treatise on the healthy procreation of the human race, embracing the obligations to offspring; the management of the pregnant female; the management of the newly born; the management of the infant; and the infant in sickness

Contents

INTRODUCTORY.— Page i.

PART I.— Page 5

Obligations to Offspring — Showing the Duties we owe to Posterity, growing out of the Violations of the Moral Law, and the results to the Child. — The causes of City Children being unhealthy, and the healthfulness of Country Children. — Why City Children fail to recover their health when taken to the Country. — Of Licentiousness. — Of Law and Order ; illustrated by the watch. — Of the Transmission of Parental Characteristics. — Of Inorganic and Organic Matter, and Cell Structure. — Of the Formation of the Primordial Cell. — Of the Spermatozoa. — Of the Organic and Animal Constructions of the Human Fabric. — The influence exerted by the Male and Female Parents upon the Offspring. — Of the Spiritual and Animal nature of Man ; illustrated by the ass and the horse. — The cause of Hereditary Disease being more Transmissable from the Mother than from the Father. — The cause of Genius not descending from Father to Son. — Genius not a Factor in the Production of Genius. — Animal or Bodily Strength essential to the support and maintenance of a Great Mind. — The condition of the Mother that is essential to the production of a high order of Mind. — Reasons for cultivating the Organic rather than the Physical structure of the Female ; and for cultivating the Physical Powers of the Male rather than his Organic Structure. — Of the Spiritual nature of Woman, and the Brutality of Man. — The Circum-

11 CONTENTS.

stances in which the highest Order of Minds most frequently appear. — The Growth of Beard, and other features which characterize the Male, are indicative of the blood pabulum for the production of the spermatozoa. — The effeminate features of the Female characterize the Blood Pabulum for the production of the Organic Body, the cell. — Of Female Education and Pursuits. — The Same of the Male. — Mixed Schools inimical to the Preparation of the Young for the part they are to perform in the Reproduction of the Race. — Of Early Marriage.

PART II.— Page 28

Of the Foetus in Utero. — Necessity of Protecting the Interests of the Foetus. — Of the Relation which exists between the Mother and the Foetus. — Of the Blood ; its Conservative Power in maintaining a Healthy State. — Family Characteristics Transmitted through the Blood. — Hereditary Diseases.— s-Conditions of Matter, material and dynamic. — The Effects of Fear ; illustrations of. — The Liability of the Foetus to the Effects of Dynamic Forces, which affect it through the Organism of the Mother : (a) Alarm, dynamic force ; (b) Normal changes in the Organism of the Mother ; (c) Abnormal changes in the Organism of the Mother. — Of Mothers' Marks — Of the Siege of Landau ; an interesting case, illustrating the effects of fright. — Of the Effects of Age. — The Importance of a Healthy State of both Parents at the time of Conception, and of the Mother during the entire term of uterine gestation. — Association. — Mental and Physical Exercise. — The food and dress of the Pregnant Woman.

PART III.— Page 58

Management of the Newly- Bom. — The manner in which the Newly-born is Treated, due to the State of Cultivation. — Of Birth. — Instinctive Desires and Reflex Action of the Nervous System. — The

CONTENTS. Ill

Manner in which Christianized Society receives the Newly-born. — Of the Conditions most Compatible with its Organization. — Of the Senses. — Temperature. — The Care with which Animals and Birds protect their Young from Cold. — Necessity of Warmth Illustrated by the Attention of the Florist to the Temperature of his ^Greenhouse." — Constitutions are to be Made. — The Conditions necessary to Breathing. — Deaths from Breathing Impure Air Arrested by the adoption of Dr. Clark's Suggestion to Ventilate the Buildings. — Of Inhalation, Exhalation, and the Circulation of the Blood. — Ablution of the Newly-born. — The Importance of the Mother nursing her own Babe. — The Manner in which the Infant should be put to the Breast. — Of Colostrum. — Of Colostration. — Food for the Young. — The Physiological Changes which transpire in the Mother during Uterine Gestation.— Of the Mecomium.— Of Yellow Milk ; White Milk.— Of Sleep.

PART IV.— Page 80. Infancy.— .Of Infantile Organization The Discharge of Mucus

Of the Muscular System. — Of Handling and Carrying the Infant. — Of Airing the Infant, and danger of Exposure. — Dentition; tooth formation. The Age at which the Several Teeth Appear. — Of Cutting the Gums. — Of Food for the Infant. — Of the Mother's Breast. — The Greatest Danger to the Infant Arising from Improper Feeding. — Precautionary Measures to be Taken in Feeding the Infant. — Improperly Prepared Food the Cause of the Death of Many Infants. — Liebig's Soup.— Carrot Pap. — Of Wet Nurses. — Of Clothing the Infant. — Of Weaning.

PART V.— Page no

The Infant in Sickness. — Selection and Preparation of the Sick Chamber. — Quietude. — Temperature. — Ventilation. — The Furniture,

IV CONTENTS.

Bedding and Medicines. — Sending for the Physician ; His Reception ; His Examination of the Patient. — Of the Company and Nurse. — Advice to the Mother in regard to her Neighbors ; and to the Neighbors in regard to their Conduct toward the Sick. — How Visitors to the House of the Sick should be Received. — Of the Necessity of adhering strictly to the Directions of the Physician. — Administration of Medicines. — Of the Condition of the Eyes, Mouth and Nose. — Relief from the Suffering of Teething. — The Rescue of a Dying Infant by Cutting the Gums. Importance of Fresh Air to the Teething Infant. — The Importance of Early Detecting the illness of the Infant, and giving it Prompt Attention.

COLIC— Page 131.

The Complaint with which the Infant is Most Frequently Afflicted. — Derivation of the word " Colic." — The Several Varieties of Colic. — Neuralgic, or Nervous Colic : Treatment. — Spasmodic, or Incidental Colic : Treatment. — Bilious Colic : Treatment. — Flatulency, or Wind Colic : Treatment — Inflammatory Colic : Treatment. ~-Colic Compounded of two or more of the Varieties : Treatment.

INTRODUCTORY.

In presenting a book to the public, the question naturally occurs : For what class or profession is the work designed ? This question is usually answered by the title of the book. A treatise on disease is for the medical profession; on law, for the legal profession; and another on divinity, for theologians. Books are also written in the style, and with the technicalities peculiar to the science upon which they are written ; and the reader is supposed to be so educated in that particular science as to be able to comprehend the full force and meaning of the terms used in illustration of the subject or science. Now, who shall be the reader of "The Healthy Infant?" To this we answer: Every one who feels

ANY INTEREST AT ALL IN THE PROPAGATION OF THE RACE.

Therefore, this work is addressed to both sexes; to the professional and unprofessional ; and especially to the young —

2 INTRODUCTION.

for a healthy posterity will depend very much upon the degree of self-government which the latter exercise over their own actions, and also upon a knowledge of certain laws which pertain to reproduction, and which will enable them to secure to the offspring a freedom from many evils, which, with a reckless disregard of this knowledge, will bring misery and wretchedness to many succeeding generations. Hence, "The Healthy Infant " is written in plain and simple language, and free from all technicalities and obscurity of expression. The author would respectfully call the attention of the reader to that portion of Part I. which treats of Sex, and the influence exerted upon the offspring by the male and female parents. He also hopes that he will not be considered as teaching the doct?i?ie of materialism. The union of spirit and matter is only one of the innumerable phenomena that are beyond the comprehension of man. Although this union is so close that we cannot discover the dividing line between matter and spirit, yet there is sufficient evidence adduced in the following pages to show that there is a soul or mind or spirit, which is capable of exercising an influence over matter to such an extent as to cause the death of a local partas was the case of the man with stone in the bladder ; and on the other hand, we know that the condition of matter exercises a marked influence upon the soul or mind or spirit of the man; for when his liver is torpid, or the bowels constipated, he has the — blues, which occasionally result in suicide. We further know that the soul or mind or spirit is especially associated with the vital organs, and not with the animal or mechanical construction of the fabric, as are the extremities; for these may be wanting, and yet "the soul liveth" Therefore, as the father supplies, mainly, the me-

INTRODUCTION. 3

chanical or animal construction to the offspring, and the mother the organic construction, the type of the former is discovered in the general make-up of the body, and the type of the latter in the talents and dispositions of the minds of the offspring.

Those who are contemplating a change from a single to a married state, owe it to posterity, in selecting their companions, to keep the interests of posterity in view, rather than prostitute to their personal aggrandizement that sacred marital law which was handed from the portals of heaven directly to man. This law marks the identity of families, communities, states, and Nations. It secures to the heir, his patrimony ; to the prince, his crown. Yet, still more important, and in accordance with its design, is the propagation of the race. Therefore, those who enter into this relation incur the obligation of protecting every interest of posterity.

THE

Healthy Infant.

Part I. On Parental Obligations To Offspring

In looking abroad upon the varied conditions of our race, we find in many of our fellow-beings evidences of mental and physical incapacity. We find many instances of those who perish from diseases, transmitted from generation to generation; and of those diseases we have sad reminders in our midst, in the shape of Asylums, Almshouses, Institutes for Feeble-Minded, and Charity Hospitals. Notwithstanding the number who suffer from debility, and the lives sacrificed by hereditary disease, mankind seems not to be satisfied ; but each successive generation magnifies the evils it inherited by adding its proportion of those which arise from human depravity. Against this depravity, civilized society protects itself by the criminal law, prison houses, and the gallows. In view of all this, the question naturally arises, Whence cometh all these evils ? And the usual response is : " From Eve, the prime mother of us all."

Thus generation after generation has endeavored to shift the burden from its conscience, to the first child-bearer ; and so avoid responsibility for its own willful and egregious sins. When the tempter prevailed on her to eat the forbidden fruit, she did not stop to look down the current of human events and behold the untold evils she might be bestowing upon innocent posterity. She knew nothing of her progeny, and certainly little, if anything, of what she was entailing upon them. Her mind was entirely engaged in the pleasantness of the fruit to her taste, and its boasted power of making herself and consort " as Gods, knowing good and evil." Now, the present generation enjoys this knowledge, combined with the experience of thousands of years as to the terrible results accruing to posterity from our own actions ; yet many daughters of Eve blindly rush into marriage without a thought of the misery they may be preparing for their posterity — oblivious of everything but their own selfish gratification; and thinking they are nobody's <k keepers" but their own. Thus the stream of human life, polluted by the fall at its source, increases in impurity as it flows on. It becomes more and more defiled by individual folly and crime; and its corrupted and poisonous qualities are seen in shortened human lives, in which more sin and misery are crowded than was found in the far longer earthly pilgrimages of the patriarchs.

It is upon parents and guardians that the obligations rest of implanting those principles in the young, and endowing them with that extent of knowledge which will qualify them for thinking and acting intelligently, wisely, and purely in the matter of the propagation of the species, so that the stream of life shall become, comparatively at least, pure;

human suffering be kept within due bounds, and the duration of life be limited only by natural causes. By this means a high degree of perfection of character and consequent happiness will be secured to our race ; for the mitigation of our bodily ailments upon which so large a share of that happiness depends, is only to be realized by the correction of our mental and moral deficiencies.

It is manifest that equally with the physical conformation of the parents, their progeny also inherits their moral bias, mental deficiencies, and bodily ailments. Hence, parents seem to continue their lives in their descendants. Like the Claudian family, which through many generations exhibited a continuous and even inflamed malignity of disposition until it reached the utmost height of its revolting intensity in Nero, "the tyrant, the scourge of mankind, and the incendiary of Rome." Thus posterity carries with it the virtues and the vices, the health and diseases, of its ancestry. This is the source of the greater part of the evils which come under the observation of the moralist and of the physician, who are often charged with inefficiency in correcting moral bias and bodily ailments, notwithstanding the increased diffusion of knowledge, and the advancements in the medical sciences afford increased facilities for so doing. Thus being held, in some degree, responsible for the impurities of the stream of human life, it then becomes our bounden duty to learn as much as we can of the history of our ancestry, that we may cultivate our inherited virtues and avoid our inherited vices. We must connect with this a knowledge of organic law, and of the natural laws of health. This will enable us to guard against inherited tendencies to particular diseases; and will also teach us the importance of avoiding those pernicious influences and habits which depress the vital forces, impair the integrity of organic life, and thus invite the development of latent hereditary affections which otherwise would have become extinct. Even in the absence of hereditary tendencies, the disorders of the constitution, effected by irregular habits and pernicious indulgences, will be transmitted to the offspring. The child upon whom is entailed an unhappy existence may truly point back to his forefathers as the progenitors of his afflictions as well as of his being. The causes which produce so much suffering and loss of life are clearly attributable to the many dissipations, excesses, abuses of the animal economy, evil associations, and such amusements as lower the natural and healthy tone of the mind. The laws of health are dependent upon the delicate and intricate connection subsisting between the various organs, the exactness of their functions, and their free and unrestrained exercise. When, therefore, these laws are interfered with and encroached upon, and even positively violated by late hours, frequent parties, abnormal indulgence of the appetite, the midnight dance, and the opera — the human system is radically undermined and rendered utterly unfit for increasing and multiplying its kind. Those day and night draughts upon the vital forces entirely break up the beautiful machine of the human body, and leave the immortal soul a mere empty bag of wind, suited to no good use whatever.* The result to the offspring is a patrimony of debility. As a panacea, the

*The principal sources of degeneracy which appear at present to be most active in their influence for evil on large masses of mankind may be stated as follows: (i.) Degeneracy from Toxaemia, or from the abuse of alcoholic fluids, opium, preparations of Indian hemp (hashish), tobacco, and the like; also, from anxious parent sends his child to the rural districts, where the parents live more in accordance with natural law, and the result to the offspring is vigorous health. The prime cause of the healthfulness of country children is lost sight of by the city parents, who fail to discover in their own bad habits the prolific source of the infirmities of their children ; and while these habits are demanded by the follies of social life, it is to be regretted that frail humanity yet further descends into the lowest revelries of licentiousness, and brings from thence the seeds of still greater evils to posterity. Although the married state ought to remove the temptation to the indulgence of licentious habits, yet these are to be found among married people; and the offspring is more apt to suffer, as there is not sufficient time before the act of reproduction to admit of the parents recovering from the effects of such indulgence. And surely it is not expected to ob-

the effects of lead, mercury, arsenic, phosphorus ; and from the use of unwholesome vegetable food, such as diseased rye, maize, wheat, and the like. (2.) Degeneracy from the persistent and pernicious influence of malaria. (3 ) Degeneracy from certain peculiar geological formations, soil and water, as in the development of goitre. (Maclellan, Watson.) See paper on Hygiene of India, in Med. Chir. Review. (4.) Degeneracy from the effects of epidemic diseases which now and then afflict large populations, profoundly influencing the system, and engendering those morbid temperaments whose types are fully expressed in the generations which follow the one that has suffered from such epidemic pestilences. Many of such like epidemics act like toxic agents on the nervous system. (5.) Degeneracy from the effectsof the * great town system," as the phrase is. The chief elements of such degeneracy are: [a) Unhealthy situations ; (b.) a noxious local and general atmosphere; (c.) insufficient atmosphere; (d.) insufficient and improper nourishment ; (e.) deleterious avocations; {/.) moral and social misery, wretchedness, and crime. (6.) Degeneracy from fundamental morbid states, congenital or acquired, as seen in imperfect cerebral developments, deaf mutism, blindness, constitutional diseases, and diathesis (implanted, hereditary, or acquired), such as syphilis and scrofulosis. (7.) Degeneracy from mixed causes, from marrying in and in, and from other causes not included in the above. {Med. Ckir. Review, Jan., 1S58: Aitken, "Science of Practice. ")

IO THE HEALTHY INFANT.

tain good fruit from bad trees ; or a plentiful harvest from impoverished or uncultivated lands. Those who raise cattle and horses pay strict attention to the stock, that it may be of the best and most productive kind. In so doing they act upon a recognized principle that to have good progeny, the progenitors must likewise be good. The material interest of man makes him appreciate the importance of having a knowledge of the laws of healthy production and development in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. But the evils resulting from the gratification of our own desires are not always immediate ; they are often removed from our sight to appear in future generations, the representatives of which will perhaps be taught, not to regard their ancestors as at all responsible, but to consider their afflictions as either providential visitations, in consequence of their own transgressions of the moral law, or as the results of their own violations of the laws of health. For these reasons, married people, more especially, should guard against excessive indulgence and violations of the laws of health, and correct morals, but more particularly against the baneful, contaminating and demoralizing effects of adultery. The penalties of this sin often fall heavily upon posterity, constituting for it, indeed, a wretched inheritance.

From the foregoing we may conclude that we are created to live by law, and to be subject to order, and not made over to the uncertainties of chance. In fact, the elementary constituents of inorganic compounds, no less than organized bodies, the phenomena of reproduction, and the continuance of life are in accordance with law. Now, were it possible to keep these laws inviolate, and the Great Lawmaker not arrest their exercise, organized matter would continue through

OBLIGATIONS TO OFFSPRING. II

interminable ages, for all we know. In order that the human organization may continue in the performance of its functions uninterruptedly, it is therefore necessary that these laws should be studied and understood, and the importance of complying with their demands be appreciated. When we look upon the face of a watch and see the hands pointing at figure after figure, our admiration is excited by the regularity and the exactitude of their movements. But on opening it, we discover how delicate is the machinery that is necessary to satisfy the laws of nature ; and how slight a derangement of apparently a very insignificant part will disarrange the whole mechanism. When it came from the hands of its maker it had all of its part complete. It was made of durable substances — brass and gold. Its movements will continue until it is worn out or broken. It requires no attached apparatus to prepare material for its daily sustenance. Its object is single — the keeping of time. Hence there is no necessity for a combination of systems or organs.

When we keep in mind the absolute necessity of a strict compliance with law in the construction of, comparatively, so simple a mechanical apparatus as a watch, we shall better appreciate the existence of a much higher order of laws when we come to study that more admired and beautiful structure — the human economy. Although much of the beauty and excellency of these laws, by their intricacy and obscurity, escapes our understanding, yet there are many phenomena which will, by proper interpretation, be our guides for apprehending them in some degree.

How different from the watch is man! The imperfections acquired from parents are usually irreparable. They will, most likely, be transmitted to each succeeding child. He does not come into the world complete; but, to be developed. His proximate component parts are not elementary substances, but gases, combined according to their laws of affinity. When he is resolved into his ultimate chemical constituents, there remains only a few ounces of earthy matter. He is not at once supplied with the requisite quantity of material for his existence and movements, but is furnished with an apparatus for the elaboration of material for the construction of his body, and for the removal of waste matters. The object of his being is not single, but manifold. Hence the necessity for organs and systems of organs. Their connections are specially delicate, and the disturbance of one comparatively insignificant part is promptly reflected to other parts, *and is productive of a greater variety of derangements than would occur with the watch. Deficiencies hi the watch may be supplied, and imperfectly arranged parts may be re-adjusted ; but in man it is sadly the reverse, as his deficiencies and derangements are not only irreparable, but transmissible through many generations. A due consideration of the foregoing ought to induce a high appreciation of a knowledge of the laws of health and of reproduction, and the importance of complying with all the demands which they impose upon us as a duty to posterity.

As we may reasonably conclude that the offspring partakes of the nature of the parent in its psychical and physical constitutions, it now remains to consider those laws which govern the transmission of parental characteristics.

The attention of the reader has already been called to the classification of matter under two general heads, viz : inorganic and organic. The former is represented by the mineral, and the latter by the animal and vegetable kingdom. The distinguishing feature of the latter class, or organic matter, is the cell structure. A cell may be described as a bubble, so small as to be seen and studied only under the microscope. When many of these are united they form tissue, of which animal and vegetable matters are composed; therefore, all organic bodies, whether man or insect, trees or plants, consist of a congeries of cells. This structure is beautifully displayed in the leaf of a flower when highly magnified. From a single cell, called the primordial or parent cell, or germ produced by the parent — a type of which is found in the " tread " of the hen's egg — proceed all the succeeding cells, called daughter cells, by duplication. Thus the parent cell produces two ; each of these two produce two others, and so continue multiplying by twos until a body is formed like the parent which gave origin to the primordial cell. A remarkable feature of the parent cell is, that those of the several races of animals, and those of the vegetable kingdom, are so similar in appearance as to make it impossible to determine, upon examination, whether it would germinate into a human being, an animal, a fish, a fowl, a tree, or a plant. Yet, notwithstanding its minuteness and indistinctness of character, it seems to possess the power of determining the shape and size of the offspring, the character of its organic structure, and the manner in which the organs shall perform their vital functions. These are certainly great issues to proceed from a body so small.

From the foregoing we can fully appreciate the importance of the cell in the production of the offspring, and are forced to the conclusion that the cell is endowed with some attribute peculiar to itself, independent of the impregnating fluid of the male. This conclusion is still farther strengthened when we contrast the male secretion with the female cell. The latter is an organized body, in miniature; and is not, as a cell, secreted from the blood of the mother. There is a small bladder, the "graafian vesicle" or "ovisac" in the stroma of the ovary, a small organ situated one on each side of the womb, within which the parent cell is formed and orga?iized out of material supplied by the blood of the mother, and through the lining membrane of the ovisac. The parent cell is thus organized under the direct influence of the life-giving power of the blood of the mother; and is thereby impressed with a type of her organism; and this type passes into the organic structure of the offspring. It is for this reason that the influence of the female supersedes the male parent in the formation of the brain, and of the organs within the trunk.

The cell, as supplied by the mother, is of short duration, but when it is impregnated with the male fluid, it starts on its course in the formation of the foetus. This fluid possesses no cell structure, although it contains the spermatozoa, which are very active in their movements. This activity proceeds from their animal nature, as the name implies, being derived from the two Greek words: sperma (seed), and zodfi (an animal). Their function in reproduction is to supply the animal construction to the offspring. Therefore, the influence of the male supersedes that of the female parent i?i the animal construction of the organism.

We have just seen that matter is divisible into inorganic and organic bodies ; * that the cell is the distinguishing fea-

*The cell is a sine qua non to the existence of an organized body; but not to organic matter — as the white of an egg, or the spermatozoa are organic matters, but are not organic organized bodies.

ture of the latter, and that organic bodies consist of a congeries of cells. We will now confine our remarks to the animal creation, including man, and will consider the subject under two heads, viz: the animal, and the organism or organical construction of the animal. By the animal construction is meant the framework which gives support and strength to the body; and consists in the bone, muscle, fibroid, and cellular tissue, which enter into the construction of every organ and portion of the body. The organism, or organical construction, pertains to the vital organs, the brain, and the organs ccntained in the trunk. The vital organs give rise to, and determine the greatness and the qualities of the spirit or soul of the being. The ass and the horse supply a marked illustration of the different degrees and qualities of the mind, or spirit, or soul* that can be produced by vital organs. The former is preeminently an animal, and shows his brutal nature in every feature, notwithstanding his vital organs are anatomically like those of the horse, which possesses such organs as will supply a spirit that animates and raises him far above the asinine creature. Now, the female parent supplies an organized body in miniature — the cell, which determines the organical construction of the vital organs ; the manner in which these are to perform their functions; and, consequently, the extent and qualities of the spirit, or soul, or mind of the offspring.

There are phenomena of daily occurrence in the productions of the animal creation which can not be explained upon any hypothesis other than the one given above. First among these prominently stands the fact that hereditary

*A11 animals possess, in some degree, a spirit, or soul, or mind; but none, except man, are endowed with immortality.

diseases of the vital organs are more apt to be transmitted from the mother to the offspring than from the father. We also find here sufficient explanation of the child inheriting the general features and make-up of the father; whereas the general disposition of the mind, and the manner in which the vital organs perform their functions, are strongly marked by those which characterize the mother. And still farther, Dr. Carpenter, in his " Principles of Physiology," says : "It has long been a prevalent idea, that certain parts of the organism* of the offspring are derived from the male, and certain other parts from the female parent ; and although no universal rule can be laid down upon this point, yet the independent observations which have been l.iade by numerous practical 'breeders' of domestic animals (both mammals and birds) seem to establish that such a tendency has a real existence, the characters of the animal portion of the organism being especially, (but not exclusively) derived from the male parent, and those of the organic apparatus being in like manner derived from the female parent. The former will be chiefly manifested in the external appearance, in the general configuration of the head and limbs, in the organs of the senses (including the skin), and in the locomotive apparatus ; whilst the latter show themselves in the size of the body (which is primarily determined by the development of the viscera contained in the trunk) and in the mode in which the vital functions are performed. Thus the mule, which is the produce of the male ass and the mare, is essentially a modified ass, having the general configuration of its sire (slightly varied by equine peculiarities), but having the rounder trunk and the larger size of its dam; on the