quisite; and the stomach should be accustomed to the stimulus of every description of plain food. Too much care in diet is as detrimental to health as improper food; for the stomach may be brought by custom to secrete a juice capable of dissolving one kind of aliment only, so that nutriment of every other nature necessarily becomes indigestible. Thus Spallanzani, an Italian philosopher, gradually brought the stomach of a sheep to accommodate itself to animal food, and that of a raven to receive and retain vegetable

matter.

Such are the rules which, in my opinion, ought to regulate the feeding of children. Though apparently trivial, they are of great importance, since much of every man's comfort, whatever be his station, must depend on the healthy state of his family. For, true it is, that "to be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution."*

Exercise proper for young Children.-Exercise is almost as necessary for the preservation of the infant as food; but great judgment is required in apportioning the quantity, in determining the kind of exercise, and in fixing the periods at which it should be taken.

Though the circulation of the blood in every animal is carried on by the vital principle, and it would be continued while the animal lives, independent of any movement of the parts of the body, or locomotion of the whole body; yet, experience has demon

* Rambler.

In

strated, that muscular motion aids greatly the circulation, consequently promotes secretion and assimilation, and is, in fact, essential for maintaining health. very young animals, however, and especially in those of the human race, the motion communicated to the body must be of the gentlest kind, continued for a few minutes only, and repeated at proper intervals. During the first month, indeed, of the life of an infant, nature requires that the greater part of every twentyfour hours be spent in sleep, and in replenishing the stomach; and consequently any movement which is given to the child should be effected when it awakes, a short time before it is suckled; for at this time the stomach is empty, and its function is at rest. Nurses, however, generally adopt the opposite plan. After taking the infant from the breast, instead of laying it softly down, and leaving it at rest till the stomach performs its office on the nutriment with which it has just been replenished, they set it up nearly erect, pat it on the back to expel the wind, and jog it on the knee, till the poor little creature becomes sick, and ejects nearly the whole of the meal which has been imparted to it. In consequence of this mismanagement, the infant again craves for the breast; but as there is yet no fresh supply, it whines and cries, and continues to do so, either till it be satisfied with some artificial food, or be lulled asleep by the influence of the cradle or of the swingcot, or by rolling it on the knee of the nurse. Nothing is so adverse to the nature of digestion as this plan. The digestive process never proceeds regularly unless the

animal be at rest; and this state should be preserved, if possible, till the whole of the food be converted into chyme, and be pushed forward into the intestines. It has been proved by experiment, that, if two dogs be fed in the same manner, on the same kind of food, and one of them has been permitted to sleep, whilst the other has been hunted; on dissection, the food in the stomach of the dog which has been asleep, is found to have been completely, or nearly wholly digested; while that in the stomach of the dog which was hunted, is scarcely changed from the state in which it was swallowed. But could no other circumstance be adduced to prove that this is an improper period of exercising the infant in the month, the necessity of using a cradle or a swing cot, or of rolling the infant on the knee of the nurse to lull it asleep, would be reason sufficient. The sleep procured by these methods is unnatural, and necessarily unwholesome. Whether it be the result of a partial pressure on the brain, from the blood being determined to this organ; or whether, as when the head of a chicken is placed under its wing, and the animal subjected to a rotatory movement, it emp ties the vessels of the head, by communicating a centrifugal motion to the fluids, and thereby causing a deficiency of the excitement which the brain requires, I shall not stop to inquire; it is sufficient to know, that a child always sleeps more soundly when it is not accustomed to be rocked. An infant in good health, properly fed and managed well, will fall asleep the moment he is laid in bed, and will continue to sleep more serenely, and for a longer

period, than if he has been rocked; therefore, even on the score of saving trouble to the nurse, cradles, swing cots, and similar contrivances, ought to be rejected from every nursery.

As the infant advances in age, it reposes less, and needs more exercise; but still, if it be in good health, it generally sleeps immediately after taking the breast. While it is awake, however, it requires to be in constant motion; and declares, by the springs which it takes when the nurse ceases to dandle it, and the sounds of mirthful satisfaction which it utters whilst it is dandled, the gratification which movement affords to it; hence it is of great importance that a nurse be strong, active, and cheerful. When the mother cannot afford the means to procure the assistance of a hired nurse, and is too weak to do justice to her infant in this respect, friction with the hand along the spine, and over the limbs, three or four times a day, is the best substitute for exercise. Many nurses, both in carrying and in dandling infants, hold them on the bend of the arm, instead of placing them, as they should always do, on the palm of the hand. This method of carrying and dandling an infant on the bend of the arm, is less irksome to the nurse; but nothing can be more injurious to female infants; for, as their bones are in a soft and yielding state, it compresses the hips, contracting, and often occasioning deformity of that part of the trunk of the body, which, from its being a bony basin, is named the pelvis, and entailing much suffering and misery on the future woman, in the event of her becoming a mother. Poverty, as I have a!

ready remarked, often forces mothers to do many things connected with the rearing of their offspring which are injurious to health. A mother who is much engaged, and forced to work, ties her infant into a chair, where it is forced to sit for hours; and being thus deprived of the exercise requisite in infancy, it grows up rickety and diseased, if it lives to attain to adult age. This is to be lamented, rather than blamed; but among the higher ranks also, children are made to suffer the irksomeness of sitting still-either to satisfy the indolence of the nursery maid, or in conformity with the wishes of some mothers, who imagine that they ought to instil habits of what they term propriety and gentility, even in the infancy of the future woman of fashion. But I shall have occasion to notice this folly at length, in my next essay, on the physical education of infants.

It is also of importance to prevent nurses from tossing children too high whilst exercising them. The uneasy sensation which it induces is rendered obvious by the action of the infant, who clings to the arms of the nurse, and expresses terror both in its countenance and by its cries. Fits have been sometimes produced by tossing infants too high; and the rapidity, also, in descending through the air, when a child is thrown very high, excites a tendency of blood to the head, which may be productive of very serious consequences.

When a child has attained to the age of eight or nine months, he has generally acquired such vigor of limb as enables him to move himself in the recumbent posture; but few nurses are fond

of

of permitting infants to crawl, and rather seek to place them early on their feet. Great caution, however, is necessary in attempting to anticipate nature in this operation; either the limbs become crooked, from bearing too early the weight of the body, or, what is worse, by premature exertion, and exhaustion strength, in maintaining the erect position, diseases are contracted which adhere to the individual throughout life. An infant, even when only a few months old, should frequently be laid on a soft carpet, or a mattress; at first, the freedom of stretching and exercising the limbs and arms, in kicking and sprawling, delights the child; then, by degrees, the power of rolling over and changing position is acquired; essays in crawling are next made; and gradually, as he acquires strength of limb, the infant raises himself by the foot of a chair, or some other upright body, and becomes conscious of the power of maintaining a perpendicular position. Still, however, the child does not walk; but pauses, and first, by repeated trials, ensures the power of balancing himself; takes a step, and timidly retracts it; till, day by day, gaining confidence, and feeling at at length sufficiently strong, he makes the effort; and at once acquires the power of walking, which he ever afterwards retains. An infant, on the contrary, who is early made to step, whilst supported by the nurse under the arms, or upheld by backstrings, or by a gocart, is actually much longer in acquiring the power of walking alone: for, as he leans forwards on the prop, whatever it may be, the muscles of the back and of the loins, which

are the chief means of supporting the body in an erect position, remain unexercised; and when, at length, the effort to walk without the prop is made, these muscles do not contract with sufficient power to overcome the habit of contracting which is familiar to their antagonist muscles, and the child either totters or falls on his face.

So soon as an infant is capable of running alone, he should be allowed to take as much exercise as he pleases; and as there is a "restless activity incident to youth, which makes it delight to be in motion," a child ought not to be urged to exceed his inclination, which in this respect is a tolerably certain indication of his power. Neither should a child be taken out for the purpose of what is generally understood by the term "a walk," unless the parents can confide in the judgment of the nurse, not to permit him to walk far on a stretch; or if the parents be in that rank of life which obliges them to be the personal attendants of their children, they should never permit a child under three years of age to walk till he complains of fatigue, and desires to be carried. In certain predispositions of the habit, rickets, scrofula, and mesenteric affections, are the consequence of over fatigue at this period of life. I have more than once witnessed disease brought on in apparently stout, vigorous infants, by long walks the stomach loses its digestive power; the crude, undigested food brings on diarrhea; the limbs become emaciated, the belly large and tense, and the whole features shrunk, owing to the obstruction of the mesenteric glands; and the child dies with

hectic fever, the victim of ignorance, idleness, and bad management. Yet, children can take more exercise in a given space of time, than can be supported by many adults; but it is accompanied with repeated rests, at short intervals; and perhaps the healthful state of children who have a playground, or other limited space for exercising themselves, may be altogether attributed to this method of proceeding. A child starts off, and runs with all the velocity in his power; but the effort is one of short continuance; he sits down or lies down, till he feels refreshed; then starts again, and repeats his exertions; but in such alternate exercise and rest, he never over exerts his powers. In winter, a spare or empty room is preferable to a playground, for young children; for no error is more productive of disease, than that of endeavoring to render children hardy, by exposing them, in winter, to the alternations of heat and cold, and the severities of the weather out of doors. Pure air is undoubtedly requisite for children; but in towns, and particularly in the metropolis, health is better preserved by keeping infants at home than in sending them abroad, provided means be adopted for amusing their minds and exercising their limbs. This maxim, however, is not meant to apply to children who are old enough to keep themselves warm with exercise; but, when these are taken abroad in cold weather, they should be urged to run, so as to return home in a glow, instead of requiring the aid of a fire as soon as they enter the house.

It is melancholy to observe the efforts of some parents to make their children prodigies of prema

ture intellectual attainments, whilst their health is neglected. Sedentary occupations were never intended by Nature for the infant state; and it is extraordinary that the fatal results of the unfortunate experiments which have been made to rear ssch prodigies, do not deter parents from sacrificing their offspring to the attempt. Health is undoubtedly the first object to be attained; and civilized man, with all his pride of learning and refinement, would do well to imitate the savage portion of his species in this respect; to leave his progeny unrestrained in childhood to the free exercise of their limbs and the acquirement of health. When the foundation of a powerful and vigorous state of body has been laid in infancy, the culture of the mind may be afterwards pursued without dread of interruption; and it requires no prophetic spirit to prognosticate, that without such a foundation, that most enviable of all the states of which humanity is susceptible, "mens sana in corpore sano,' -a sound mind in a healthy body-can never be possessed!

During the month of February, the inclemency of the weather brought with it an unusual number of inflammatory diseases, such as coughs, catarrhs, pleurisy, and acute rheumatism. Parents should be very careful not to send out young children in such weather as that of the end of February; and those adults whom business or pleasure leads from home, should be aware, that more risk is incurred by entering a hot room from a cold atmosphere, than from exchanging a heated temperature for the cold air.

March 3, 1827.

T.

From the London Lancet.

HYDROPHOBIA.

The case of the unfortunate Ann Hudson, published in the Morning Herald of the 6th instant, with that of the equally unfortunate Mr. Powel, as detailed in The Times of yesterday, furnish, within one week, two melancholy proofs, in addition to those already on recood, of the total inefficiency of every variety of medical treatment recommended by the faculty of the present day, in this truly unconquerable disease.

It may indeed be questioned, whether the free and always despairing administration of such powerful poisons as Prussic acid, belladonna, nux vomica, acetates of lead and of morphine, do not hasten its fatal issue, and, however revolting the thought, thus become the only boon which the science of physic, in its present state, can offer to the devoted victim. As all those around the sufferer know that the disease leads rapidly to death, if the medicinal poison cannot effect some change in its course, they say, let the drug be till some alteration in the symptoms is produced. But, unfortunately, they do not recollect, or perhaps do not know, that ́ the symptoms arising from the absorption of all and every one of the active poisons hitherto experimented on, are precisely those that characterize the disease resulting from the bite of a rabid dog.-Prussic acid, strychnia,' upas tieuté, upas anthiar, the poisoned arrows of Java and of Africa, the extract of nux vomica, the essential oil of tobacco, the venom of a viper, when applied to a wounded part, all produce tetanic spasms, stricture of the muscles