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CHAPTER IV.

SECTION I.

On the diseases to which children are peculiarly subject at this age.

"Sickness, the minister of death doth lay "So strong a siege against our brittle clay, "As while it doth our weak forts singly win, "It hopes at length to take all mankind in ; "First it begins upon the womb to wait, "And doth the unborn child there uncreate, "Then rocks the cradle where the infant lies "Where ere it fully be alive it dies."

CAREW.

IT is now proper, according to my original design, to give some few directions for the treatment of those common complaints to which every child is subject during the first years of its existence, and few fail sooner or later to experience. For those complicated disorders which require the judgment

and the skill of a Harvey or a Cullen, it would be equally presumptuous in me to prescribe, or my fair readers to practise my prescriptions; I shall therefore confine myself to very narrow limits, and speak only of such complaints as I frequently manage successfully in my own family, and which every lady ought to understand enough to administer the first remedies, by which she may often save herself many groundless alarms, and her children much suffering.

Some physicians assert that women never ought to open a medical book, or presume to meddle with medical knowledge in the least, lest they become fanciful, and conceit themselves and families ill with every disease they read of not so the celebrated Dr. Buchan; and while we venerate him for his philanthropy, and zeal for the diffusion of professional knowledge, we must admire and honour his candour and humanity. He thus speaks upon this important subject:

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People are told, that if they dip the least into medical knowledge it will render them fanciful, and make them believe they have got every disease of which they read. Perhaps this may be the case with those who

are fanciful beforehand.

But suppose it

were so with others, they must be soon undeceived. A short time will show them their error, and a little more reading will infallibly correct it. A single instance will show the absurdity of this notion. A sensible lady rather than read a medical performance, which would instruct her in the management of her children, must leave them entirely to the care and conduct of the most ignorant, credulous, and superstitious part of the human species." And again, when endeavouring to impress upon the minds of our sex the great importance of the truly maternal character, he has this impressive passage: "Did mothers reflect on their own importance, and lay it to heart, they would embrace every opportunity of informing themselves of the duties they owe their infant offspring. It is their province not only to form the body, but also to give the mind its most early bias. They have it very much in their power to make men healthy or valetudinary, useful in life, or the pests of society." Such sentiments from the pen of a physician of eminence, must have great

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weight with every mother who is anxious to discharge the sacred duties of her station. Every lady will be sensible of the truth of the position in the passage first quoted, if she will but read and study, and learn "How fearfully and wonderfully we are made," and thereby qualify herself to mitigate the sufferings of her fellow creatures in a manner not practicable by the multitude: any one may bestow money-it is "trash"

"'Tis his, 'twas mine, and has been slave to
"thousands;"

but it is the privilege of the benevolent matron to extend the cooling draught to the parched lips of poverty and sickness, and smooth the cradle of the panting infant while directing the grateful mother how to restore the little sufferer to health; and thus diffuse the balm of hope through the dwellings of indigence and sorrow.

It is my sincere wish that this little volume may prove a useful assistant to this beneficent work, by furnishing my readers with a concise and simple statement of the characteristic symptoms of the various complaints to which children are subject,

in so small a compass that it may become a pocket companion, always at hand, and always faithful. Therefore, I shall endeavour to render it so far scientific by quotations from respectable medical authors, as will enable every intelligent reader to proceed with confidence when called upon to administer the cordial or the drug, for the relief of any complaint here specified, and with the aid of the rules given in note (1) they may portion out the medicines required with exactness; which is of the utmost impor

tance.

The better to promote the end desired, every lady who has a family, or who wishes to impart the blessings of her medical knowledge to her poor neighbours, should furnish herself with a medicine chest, containing every drug of known and established efficacy, and a set of scales and weights proper for the purpose; for no one but a regularly bred physician should ever venture to give any potent drug, especially opium, calomel, or emetic tartar, unless weighed with scrupulous exactness, according to the above-mentioned rules. If thus

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