340 BOTANIC PHYSICIAN. 
sex in the old world, in this species of degeneracy, and want of na- 
_ tural feeling. ae 
Did mothers reflect on their own importance, and Jay it to heart, 
they would embrace every opportunity of informing themselves of | - 
the duties which they owe to their infant offspring. It is their pro- 
Vince, 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. It is” 
_ indeed to be regretted that more care is not bestowed in teaching 
the proper management of children to those whom Nature has de- 
signed for mothers. This, instead of being made the principal, 
is seldom considered as any part of female education. Is it any 
wonder, when females so educated come to be mothers, that they 
should be quite ignorant of the duties belonging to that character? 
However strange it may appear, it is certainly true, that many mo- 
$ ignorant, when they have brought a child into the world, 
is to be done for it,as the infant itself. But while the education 
ales implies little more than what relates to dress and public 
how, we have nothing to expect from them but ignorance, even 1% 
the most important concerns. 
OF DISEASED PARENTS, 
a» oe 
One great source of the diseases of children is the UNHEAETH — 
NEss of PaRENTs: It would be as reasonable to expect a rich crop — 
from a barren soil, as that strong and healthy children should be — 
born of parents whose constitutions have been worn out with in- — 
temperance or disease. : Pes: 
_, An ingenious writer observes, 
ae . ~ 
3 orl, i that of thei Olispring. No one whe believes 
ill be surprised, on a view of the female world, to find diseases. 
and d ath so frequent among children. A delicate female, brought 
pape ap an utter stranger to exercise. and open air, who lives 
on tea and other stops, may bring a child into the world, but it will 
hardly be fit to live. The first blast of disease will nip the tender 
plant in the bud; or should it struggle through a few year’s exis- 
tence, its feeble frame, shaken with convulsions from every trivial 
eause, will be unable to perform the common functions of life, and 
_ prove a burden to society, 
__ If to the delicacy of mothers we add the irregular lives of fathers, 
we shall see farther cause to believe that children are often hurt by 
the constitution of their parents. A sickly frame may be originally 
generated by hardships, or intemperance, but ebiefly by the latter. Tt 
1s Impossible that a course of vice shall not spoil the best constitution ; 
and did the evil terminate here, it would be a just punishment for 
the folly of the sufferer: but when once a disease js contracted and | 
rivetted in the habit, it is often entailed on posterity. What a dread- — 
ful inheritance is the gout, the scurvy, the king’s-evil, s 
real, to transmit to our offspring! A person laboring u 
__ dy, particularly of bad blood, ought not to marry till that 
_ ¢leansed, and the disease eradicated. Want of attention 
