ART OF HEALING. $i; 
things in forming connections for life, has rooted out more families 
than the sword. wouter ** 
Such children as have the misfortine to be born of diseased pa- 
rents will require to be nursed with greater care than others. They 
should also go through a course of mild, cleansing, vegetable reme- 
dies, and by a proper perseverance, we may in this way make 
amends for the defects of constitution. ; 
Clothing of Children. 
Tue clothing of an infant is so simple a matter, that it is sur- 
prisiug 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 of clothes to the infant but to keep it warm. 
All that is necessary for this purpose, is to wrap it ina soft loose cover- 
ing. Werea mother left to the dictates of Nature alone, she would 
certainly pursue this course. But the business of dressing an infant 
is in a great measure out of the hands of mothers, and has princi- 
‘pally become a secret which none but nurses pretend to under- 
stand. 
From the most early ages it has been thought necessary that a 
woman in labor should have some one to attend her. This in time — a 
became a business; and, asin allothers, those who were employed __ 
in it strove to out-do one another in the different branches of their 
profession. The dressing of a child became of course to be consi- 
dered as the midwife’s province; who no doubt imagined, that the 
more dexterity she could show in this article, the more her skill 
should be admired. Her attempts were seconded by the vanity of 
parents, who, too often desirous of making a show of the infant as 
soon as it was born, were ambitious to have as much finery heaped 
upon it as possible. Thus it came to be thought as necessary fora 
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 ga and 
wound its tender frame, but even to obstruct the motion of the heart, 
Tungs, and other organs necessary to life. i: 
_ In some countries the practice of rolling children in so many ban- 
dages, is in a measure Jaid aside ; but it would still be a difficult task 
to persuade the generality of mankind that the shape of an infant 
does not entirely depend on the care of the midwife. So far, how- 
ever, are all her endeavors to mend the shape from being successful, 
that they constantly operate the contrary way, and mankind become 
deformed in proportion to the means used to prevent it. How little | 
deformity of body is to be found among uncivilized nations ! So lit- — 
tle, indeed, that it is vulgarly believed they put all their deformed 
children to death. The truth is, they hardly know sucha thing a 
adeformed child. Neither should we, if we followed their e: 
s¢ nations never think of managing their children. 
the full use of every organ, carry them abroad 
_ Wash their bodies daily in cold water, &e. By this 
” 
a 
ut 
sat Salon 
